Self-paced
P1
It is commonly assumed that even if some forgeries have aesthetic merit, no forgery has as much as an original by the imitated artist would. ███
Common belief ·
Forgeries can't be as good aesthetically as originals
Conflicting fact ·
Art specialists can mistake a forgery for an original
This suggests that, at least aesthetically, forgeries can be as good. (Ex. Han van Meegeren's Disciples painting; forged under signatures of Jan Vermeer and thought to be one of Vermeer's best works.)
P2
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Questions ·
Is forgery inherently inferior art? How can be judge forgeries as worse?
The fact that a fake can be confused for an original suggests that it's aesthetically as good.
Lessing's answer ·
Lessing has an answer
We'll get the answer in the next paragraph.
P3
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Lessing's answer ·
Forgeries are worse, but not because of aesthetics
Forgeries lack vision and originality, which are some of the qualities by which we judge art.
P4
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Author's agreement with Lessing ·
van Meegeren's fake lacked historical significant
It didn't involve origination of the artistic techniques that Vermeer was known for. So, it was worse.
Passage Style
Single position
11.
The passage provides the strongest ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████
a
It is probable ████ ████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████
We have no reason to think Lessing believes many paintings hanging in important museums are likely to be forgeries. We don’t get any evidence of his view on the chances of a painting being a forgery.
b
The historical circumstances ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ █ ████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ █████
c
The greatness of ██ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ████████
We don’t have any evidence of Lessing’s view on whether an artist’s influence on other artists affects that artist’s greatness.
d
The standards according ██ █████ █ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████
We don’t have any evidence that Lessing believes the standards for whether something is a forgery change from one time period to another.
e
An artist who █████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███████████
We have no evidence that Lessing believes using the techniques of another guarantees that one is not innovative. Perhaps one can have an original vision, even if the techniques involved are not original. Or perhaps one can use both original techniques and some non-original techniques.