Tolstoy and Beauty

"All the aesthetic definitions of beauty come down to two fundemental views: one, that beauty is something existing in itself, a manifestation of the absolutley perfect-idea, spirit, will, God; the other, that beauty is a certain pleasure we experience, which does not have personal advantage as its aim. " This quote is said by Tolstoy at the being of his section where he begins to try to define art. Throughout my reading I found myself returning to this particular quote and wondering if many people view beauty within art in one of those two ways. Then I began to wonder if It is possible to define beauty within art in one of those two ways. I came to the conclusion that it is possible to view beauty in art as mystical or as something one experiences and gets some sort of pleasure from it. For example one may see a work of art and say it is beautiful but not recieve pleasure from viewing that particular piece, while someone else may look at the same work of art and experience pleasure from it but not view it in a mystical way. I think it really all comes down to how each individual views art, and how they interpret it.