[4] Throughout the book Tolstoy demonstrates an "unremitting moralism",[5] evaluating artworks in light of his radical Christian ethics,[6] and displaying a willingness to dismiss accepted masters, including Wagner,[7] Shakespeare,[8] and Dante,[9] as well as the bulk of his own writings.
[17] He states that Christian art, rooted in "the consciousness of sonship to God and the brotherhood of men":[18] can evoke reverence for each man's dignity, for every animal’s life, it can evoke the shame of luxury, of violence, of revenge, of using for one’s pleasure objects that are a necessity for other people, it can make people sacrifice themselves to serve others freely and joyfully, without noticing it.
[19] Tolstoy's examples: Schiller's The Robbers, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities and The Chimes, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead, George Eliot's Adam Bede,[20] Ge's Judgement, Liezen-Mayer's Signing the Death Sentence, and paintings "portraying the labouring man with respect and love" such as those by Millet, Breton, Lhermitte, and Defregger.
[23] Tolstoy's examples: he mentions, with many qualifiers, the works of Cervantes, Dickens, Moliere, Gogol, and Pushkin, comparing all of these unfavourably to the story of Joseph.
Having emphasised that art has a function in the improvement of humanity – capable of expressing man’s best sentiment – he finds it offensive that artists should be so wilfully and arrogantly abstruse.
[26] One criticism Tolstoy levels against art is that at some point it "ceased to be sincere and became artificial and cerebral",[27] leading to the creation of millions of works of technical brilliance but few of honourable sentiment.
[28] Tolstoy outlines four common markers of bad art: these are not however considered the canon or ultimate indicators Involves recycling and concentrating elements from other works,[29] typical examples of which are: "maidens, warriors, shepherds, hermits, angels, devils in all forms, moonlight, thunderstorms, mountains, the sea, precipices, flowers, long hair, lions, the lamb, the dove, the nightingale".
[30] Imitation is highly descriptive realism, where painting becomes photography, or a scene in a book becomes a listing of facial expressions, tone of voice, the setting, and so on.
[32] Reliance on "strikingness", often involving contrasts of "horrible and tender, beautiful and ugly, loud and soft, dark and light", descriptions of lust,[31] "crescendo and complication", unexpected changes in rhythm, tempo, etc.
[34] Diversion is "an intellectual interest added to the work of art", such as the melding of documentary and fiction, as well as the writing of novels, poetry, and music "in such a way that they must be puzzled out".
[38] This tendency was facilitated by the Renaissance, with the aggrandisement of ancient Greek art, philosophy, and culture which, Tolstoy alleges, is inclined to pleasure and beauty worship.
The professional artist can and must create to prosper, making for art that is insincere and most likely partisan – made to suit the whims of fashion or patrons.
[55] Throughout the book Tolstoy demonstrates a willingness to dismiss generally accepted masters, among them Liszt, Richard Strauss,[56] Nietzsche,[59] and Oscar Wilde.
[28] He also labels his own works as "bad art", excepting only the short stories "God Sees the Truth" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus".