Directions : Read the passage and answer the following questions based on that…
2022
Directions : Read the passage and answer the following questions based on that
It has recently been discovered that many attributions of paintings to the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Rembrandt may be false. The contested paintings are not minor works, whose removal from the Rembrandt corpus would leave it relatively unaffected: they are at its very center. In her recent book, Svetlana Alpers uses these cases of disputed attribution as a point of departure for her provocative discussion of the radical distinctiveness of Rembrandt's approach to painting.
Alpers argues that Rembrandt exercised an unprecedentedly firm control over his art, his students, and the distribution of his works. Despite Gary Schwartz's brilliant documentation of Rembrandt's complicated relations with a wide circle of patrons, Alpers takes the view that Rembrandt refused to submit to the prevailing patronage system. He preferred, she claims, to sell his works on the open market and to play the entrepreneur. At a time when Dutch artists were organizing into professional brotherhoods and academies, Rembrandt stood up. In fact, Alpers portrait of Rembrandt shows virtually every aspect of his art pervaded by economic motives. Indeed, so complete was Rembrandt's involvement with the market, she argues, that he even presented himself as commodity, viewing his studio's products as extensions of himself, sent out into the world to earn money. Alpers asserts that Rembrandt's enterprise is found not just in his paintings, but in his refusal to limit his enterprise to those paintings he actually painted.
Why is the work of seventeenth-century Dutch artist Rembrandt a matter of scrutiny?
- A.
The authenticity of major portion of Rembrandt work is being disputed and believed to be counterfeits.
- B.
The relatability of Rembrandt's art has raised a series of questions over its originality.
- C.
The huge age gap between the art, when arranged chronologically, has questioned the validity the artwork of being the original Rembrandt.
- D.
Only (b) and (c)
- E.
None of these
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept
In a reading-comprehension item, the answer must be drawn from what the passage actually asserts, not from outside knowledge or plausible-sounding generalisations. To answer a 'why' question, locate the explicit cause the author states and match it to the option that restates that exact cause.
Application
The opening sentence supplies the cause directly: it has 'recently been discovered that many attributions of paintings to ... Rembrandt may be false.' The author immediately stresses these are 'not minor works ... they are at its very center' of the Rembrandt corpus. So the scrutiny arises because the authenticity of a large, central body of work credited to Rembrandt is now in doubt - several of these paintings may not be his at all.
The choice stating that the authenticity of a major portion of Rembrandt's work is disputed and believed to be counterfeit restates precisely this discovery, so it is the correct reading of the passage.
Contrast
The 'questions over originality / relatability' choice is too vague and shifts to general doubts about originality, whereas the passage names a specific cause: disputed attribution of authorship.
The 'age gap / chronological arrangement' choice introduces a chronological-gap argument the passage never makes; the doubt is about who painted the works, not about their dates.
The 'only (b) and (c)' combination depends on those two weak choices, so it cannot be right once each is rejected on its own.
The 'none of these' choice fails because the passage does give an explicit reason, which the authenticity-dispute choice captures.