Character guide

Leo Tolstoy

major

Also known as Tolstoy

Tolstoy writes as both insider and prosecutor: a novelist of genius who now insists that most celebrated art is counterfeit, and that only sincere feeling, accessible to the uneducated, counts. His argument draws on his own crisis of faith, his readings of Plato and Aristotle, and his contempt for the leisured classes who consume art they did not earn. The treatise's early chapters dismantle beauty-based theories, setting up the moral test he will apply to Wagner, the decadents, and his own past work.

Richard Wagner

supporting

Also known as Wagner

Wagner is the living test case for Tolstoy's charge that modern art has lost the capacity to transmit real feeling, substituting technical ambition and borrowed emotion. Tolstoy grants Wagner's fame and the devotion of his admirers, then argues that his attempt to fuse music and drama violates the separate realms of each art, producing effects that imitate sincerity without possessing it. Wagner's prestige makes him the pivot of the treatise's middle chapters, where Tolstoy turns from theory to the damning evidence of celebrated works.

Siegfried

minor

Hero of Wagner's Ring cycle, discussed as a mythical figure.

Ludwig van Beethoven

minor

Also known as Beethoven

Composer cited as an example of true art by Tolstoy.

Charles Baudelaire

minor

Also known as M. Baudelaire

French poet criticized for decadent and obscure art.

Plato

minor

Ancient philosopher whose views on art are discussed.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

minor

German philosopher whose aesthetic theories are critiqued.

Immanuel Kant

minor

Philosopher whose concept of disinterested pleasure is examined.

M. Schasler

minor

Also known as Schasler

German aesthetician referenced in the discussion of art theory.

Alexander Pushkin

minor

Also known as Mr. Pushkin

Russian poet mentioned as an example of national art.

Paul Verlaine

minor

Also known as M. Verlaine

French poet associated with Symbolist movement.

Ivan Goncharov

minor

Also known as Gontchareff

Russian novelist cited in passing.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

minor

German philosopher of Romanticism and aesthetics.

Friedrich Schiller

minor

German poet and philosopher on aesthetic education.

William Shakespeare

minor

Playwright cited as universal artist by Tolstoy.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

minor

German idealist philosopher mentioned in aesthetic debates.

Arthur Schopenhauer

minor

Philosopher whose pessimism and art theory are discussed.

Aristotle

minor

Ancient Greek philosopher on mimesis and catharsis.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

minor

German writer and poet referenced in art discussions.

Herbert Spencer

minor

Also known as Herbert Spencer, Spencer

English philosopher whose evolutionary aesthetics are noted.

Socrates

minor

Greek philosopher whose dialogues on art are invoked.

Voltaire

minor

French Enlightenment writer cited in aesthetic debates.

Frédéric Chopin

minor

Polish composer referenced in discussion of music.

Francis of Assisi

minor

Saint cited as example of religious feeling in art.

Jesus Christ

minor

Also known as Christ

Central figure of Christian art and Tolstoy's moral ideal.

Wotan

minor

God in Wagner's Ring cycle, discussed as mythological figure.

Siegmund

minor

Hero in Wagner's Die Walküre, part of the Ring cycle.

Mime

minor

Dwarf in Wagner's Ring, a character from the operas.

Alberich

minor

Also known as The gnome Alberich, Exit Alberich

Nibelung dwarf in Wagner's Ring, central to the plot.

Hagen

minor

Villain in Wagner's Götterdämmerung, from the Ring cycle.

Gunther

minor

King in Wagner's Ring, a character from the operas.

Sieglinda

minor

Heroine in Wagner's Die Walküre, from the Ring cycle.

Hunding

minor

Character in Wagner's Die Walküre, Sieglinda's husband.

Stéphane Mallarmé

minor

Also known as Mallarmé

French Symbolist poet criticized for obscurity.

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten

minor

German philosopher who coined the term aesthetics.

Brünnhilda

minor

Also known as the Valkyrie Brünnhilda, The Valkyrie Brünnhilda

Valkyrie in Wagner's Ring, central to the opera's plot.

Jean-Marie Guyau

minor

French philosopher whose aesthetic ideas are referenced.

John Ruskin

minor

Also known as Ruskin, John

English art critic whose moral approach to art is noted.

Friedrich Nietzsche

minor

Philosopher critiqued for his views on art and morality.

Charles Dickens

minor

English novelist mentioned as an example of popular art.

Victor Hugo

minor

Also known as Hugo

French writer cited in context of romantic art.

Charles Darwin

minor

Also known as the celebrated Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin

Naturalist whose theory of evolution is referenced.

Dante Alighieri

minor

Italian poet mentioned as a master of Christian art.

Michelangelo

minor

Renaissance artist cited for religious art.

Raphael

minor

Renaissance painter referenced in art criticism.

Homer

minor

Ancient Greek epic poet mentioned as universal artist.

Johann Sebastian Bach

minor

Composer mentioned as example of religious music.

Rudyard Kipling

minor

Also known as Rudyard Kipling, Kipling

British writer mentioned as a popular author.

Maurice Maeterlinck

minor

Also known as Maurice Maeterlinck, Maeterlinck

Belgian playwright associated with Symbolist movement.

Ivan Turgenev

minor

Russian novelist mentioned in passing.

William Morris

minor

Also known as William Morris, Morris

English designer and socialist writer on art.

Mary Magdalene

minor

Also known as Mary

Biblical figure referenced in religious art discussion.

Romeo

minor

Shakespearean character cited as example of love in art.

Juliet

minor

Shakespearean character cited alongside Romeo.

Joseph

minor

Biblical figure mentioned in context of religious art.

Stenka Razin

minor

Cossack leader referenced as a folk hero in Russian art.

Viktor Vasnetsov

minor

Also known as Vasnetsoff

Russian painter mentioned for folkloric themes.

Richard Kralik

minor

Also known as Richard Kralik, Kralik

Austrian writer and philosopher referenced in aesthetics.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

minor

German art historian and archaeologist on Greek art.

Eugène Véron

minor

Also known as Véron

French aesthetician whose work is discussed.

James Sully

minor

English psychologist and aesthetician referenced.

Professor Grote

minor

Also known as Grote

Scholar referenced in discussion of Greek aesthetics.

Richard Knight

minor

Also known as Knight, Richard Knight

English aesthetician on the picturesque.

Grant Allen

minor

Also known as Grant Allen

Canadian writer and aesthetician cited.

Victor Cousin

minor

Also known as Cousin

French philosopher of eclecticism in aesthetics.

Francis Hutcheson

minor

Scottish philosopher on moral sense and beauty.

Théodore Jouffroy

minor

French philosopher on aesthetics and common sense.

Kirkmann

minor

German aesthetician referenced in the text.

Charles Bénard

minor

Also known as Benard

French aesthetician and translator of Hegel.

Walter Langley

minor

Also known as Walter, Langley, Walter Langley

English painter mentioned in art criticism.

Jean Moréas

minor

Also known as Jean Moréas, Moréas, Jean Moréas . Enone Enone

Greek-born French poet of Symbolist movement.

Max Klinger

minor

Also known as Klinger

German symbolist artist and sculptor referenced.

Adolphe Pictet

minor

Also known as Pictet, The Swiss writer Pictet

Swiss linguist and aesthetician cited in the text.

Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy

minor

Also known as Alexée Tolstoy, Tolstoy

Russian poet and novelist, distant relative of Leo.