Art and morality. A reflection by Arnold Toynbee

Great Pyramid of Egypt. Picture from revelationsofthebible.com

¨When we admire aesthetically the marvellous masonry and architecture of the Great Pyramid or the exquisite furniture and jewellery of Tut-ankh-Amen´s tomb, there is a conflict in our hearts between our pride and pleasure in such triumphs of human art and our moral condemnation of the human price at which these triumphs have been bought: the hard labour unjustly imposed on the many to produce the fine flowers of civilisation for the exclusive enjoyment of a few who reap where they have not sown. During these last five or six thousand years, the masters of the civilisations have robbed their slaves of their share in the fruits of society´s corporate labours as cold-bloodedly as we rob our bees of their honey. The moral ugliness of the unjust acts marks the aesthetic beauty of the artistic results.¨

Arnold Toynbee, Civilisation on Trial. P. 26