Rembrandt is the most famous of the seventeenth-century Dutch painters. However, there are doubts whether some paintings attributed to Rembrandt were actually painted by him. One such painting is known as Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet. The painting was attributed to Rembrandt because of its style, and indeed the representation of the woman’s face is very much like that of portraits known to be by Rembrandt. But there are problems with the painting that suggest it could not be a work by Rembrandt.
First, there is something inconsistent about the way the woman in the portrait is dressed. She is wearing a white linen cap of a kind that only servants would wear— yet the coat she is wearing has a luxurious fur collar that no servant could afford. Rembrandt, who was known for his attention to the details of his subjects’ clothing, would not have been guilty of such an inconsistency.
Second, Rembrandt was a master of painting light and shadow, but in this painting these elements do not fit together. The face appears to be illuminated by light reflected onto it from below. But below the face is the dark fur collar, which would absorb light rather than reflect it. So the face should appear partially in shadow— which is not how it appears. Rembrandt would never have made such an error.
Finally, examination of the back of the painting reveals that it was painted on a panel made of several pieces of wood glued together. Although Rembrandt often painted on wood panels, no painting known to be by Rembrandt uses a panel glued together in this way from several pieces of wood.
For these reasons the painting was removed from the official catalog of Rembrandt’s paintings in the 1930s.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they answer the specific problems presented in the reading passage.
The passage states several inconsistencies in the painting ‘The Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet’, which is believed to have been made by Rembrandt but, these inconsistencies show that the work is not of Rembrandt. However, the lecturer refutes each of these inconsistencies by providing some of the important findings of a thorough re-examination of a painting by a panel of experts and suggests that the painting was actually of Rembrandt.
Firstly, the passage states that woman in the painting is wearing a white linen cap which only the servant would wear but at the same time the coat worn by the woman has a luxurious fur collar which no servant could afford. Such an inconsistency indicates that the painting was not of Rembrandt. However, the lectures states the result of the X-ray analysis of the painting which reveals that the fur collar had been added on the top of the original painting some 100 years ago. This was done to increase the value of the painting and make the painting attractive to the aristocratic class.
Secondly, the passage also states that light and shadow don’t fit together. The face appears to be lit by light reflected onto it from below but the dark fur collar should absorb light and not reflect it. So, the face should appear partially in shadow but in reality, it doesn’t look so which is inconsistent with Rembrandt’s style. However, the lecturer argues that the painting originally had a simple collar of light color and reflected light from below it to the face. So, the face seems to appear illuminated by reflected light but later, fur collar was added and the face kept on looking illuminated by light but in reality, it should have been shadowed partially.
Finally, the inconsistency of the wood pieces also resulted from the addition of the fur collar. No doubt, Rembrandt always painted on wooden panels but never used a panel glued together from several pieces of wood. Addition of the collar lately, required the original painting to be enlarged due to which several pieces of wood had to be glued together in order to fit the fur collar in it and make it look grand and valuable. In fact, the wood pieces used are the same as those used by Rembrandt in his other paintings.
Therefore, the findings by the panel of experts stated in the lecture clearly indicate that the painting was indeed an original work of Rembrandt and had been modified lately to increase its value.
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- Parents are the best teachers. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Use specific examples and details to support your response. 3
- Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship. 73
- In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, 68
- Young people enjoy life more than older people do. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? 73
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 313, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...h of these inconsistencies by providing some of the important findings of a thorough re-exa...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, therefore, in fact, no doubt
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 10.4613686534 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 7.30242825607 219% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 67.0 30.3222958057 221% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2059.0 1373.03311258 150% => OK
No of words: 422.0 270.72406181 156% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.87914691943 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53239876712 4.04702891845 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73546049109 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 177.0 145.348785872 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419431279621 0.540411800872 78% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 633.6 419.366225166 151% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.23620309051 158% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 21.2450331126 122% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 55.0561857901 49.2860985944 112% => OK
Chars per sentence: 128.6875 110.228320801 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.375 21.698381199 122% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.1875 7.06452816374 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.26162233261 0.272083759551 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.105805940005 0.0996497079465 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0937142282147 0.0662205650399 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.172149602879 0.162205337803 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.111634631838 0.0443174109184 252% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 13.3589403974 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 11.0289183223 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.32 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.88 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 10.7273730684 172% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 10.498013245 118% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.