Self-study
Support Surviving seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes attributed to major artists now equal in number those attributed to minor ones. ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ███████ ████ █ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████████ █████ ████ █ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████████████ ██ ███████████████████ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that many Dutch landscape paintings from the seventeenth century were painted by minor artists but attributed to major artists. Why? Because many more minor artists did those paintings than major artists, yet there are a roughly equal number of surviving paintings attributed to each type of artist.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes the output of the few major artists could not have equaled the output of the more numerous minor artists. In addition, he assumes paintings by major artists were no more likely to survive to the present day than paintings by minor artists.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Technically gifted seventeenth-century █████ █████████ ███████ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████
This weakens the argument because it suggests at least some of the paintings’ artists should be easy to identify. This makes it less likely that many paintings were misattributed.
b
In the workshops ██ █████ ███████████████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t imply the major artists produced more paintings on average than minor artists—for instance, minor artists may have enjoyed the same assistance.
c
In the eighteenth ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████████████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ████████
This weakens the argument. It implies the paintings by major and minor artists are roughly equal in number because paintings by minor artists were unlikely to survive, even if there were more to begin with.
d
Seventeenth-century art dealers ████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████████
This supports the argument. It implies art dealers were motivated and able to misrepresent artworks by minor artists as works by major artists. There’s no indication the forged signatures would be unlikely to convince people in the present day.
e
More seventeenth-century Dutch ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
This doesn’t say whether works by minor or major artists were more likely to survive. Without that information, this doesn’t support concluding that given artworks by minor and major artists were equally likely to last until the present day.