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 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 both the lecture and reading passage.
The passage and lecture both talk about whether or not a "portrait of an elderly woman in a white bonnet" was painted by one of the famous seventeenth century Dutch painter, Rembrandt. The passage provides three specific reason to illustrate that this painting was not the work of Rembrandt. However, the lecture counters each of this reasons with proper explanations and establishes the fact that it was indeed painted by Rembrandt.
First of all, the passage points out the clear dissonance between the dress wore by the woman in the portrait- white linen cap usually wore by servants along with a luxurious fur collar. It states that a fastidious painter like Rembrandt would have never made such an error in his painting. The lecture opposes this claim by talking about the results of an X-ray analysis of the portrait which revealed that the fur collar was not an original part of the portrait. It was later on painted over, most probably to give a formal look and increase the value of the painting.
Secondly, the passage posits that Rembrandt, a master of painting elements of light and shadow would never have made the error of incorrectly illuminating the women's face from below. The lecturer counters this by reiterating the explanations revealed by the X-ray analysis. The original painting features a simple light reflecting cloth instead of the dark fur collar; this would certainly reflect light which would eventually illuminate the women's face.
Finally, the passage claims that several pieces of woods glued together to make the back of the painting is not the characteristic of Rembrandt, and for all this reasons the painting was removed from the official catalog. However, the lecture clearly illustrates that when additional work of painting the fur was done in the original painting, extra wood panels were glued in the sides to provide a grandiose and voluminous appearance to the painting. Additionally, she also states that the wood pieces in the original paintings came from the same tree used by Rembrandt to paint his hat wearing self-portrait, concluding that this particular art work was the work of illustrious Rembrandt.
- It is more important to keep your old friends than to make new friends. 70
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement The knowledge we gain from personal experiences is more valuable than the knowledge we gain from books Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer Do not use memorized examples 81
- The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a food distribution company with food storage warehouses in several cities. "Recently, we signed a contract with the Fly-Away Pest Control Company to provide pest control services at our war 69
- It is important to keep old friends rather than make new friends. Explain your reasons and examples 70
- Prompt: The best idea arises from a passionate interest in commonplace things. 16
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 41, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...The passage and lecture both talk about whether or not a 'portrait of an elderly woman in...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 56, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
... lecture both talk about whether or not a 'portrait of an elderly woman in a...
^
Line 1, column 341, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
.... However, the lecture counters each of this reasons with proper explanations and es...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, talking about, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 30.3222958057 171% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1831.0 1373.03311258 133% => OK
No of words: 354.0 270.72406181 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17231638418 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33761313653 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76332558201 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 179.0 145.348785872 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505649717514 0.540411800872 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 549.0 419.366225166 131% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 21.2450331126 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 49.2609282622 49.2860985944 100% => OK
Chars per sentence: 140.846153846 110.228320801 128% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.2307692308 21.698381199 125% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.92307692308 7.06452816374 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.315194883153 0.272083759551 116% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.122182977455 0.0996497079465 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0872726218769 0.0662205650399 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.202317617457 0.162205337803 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0956548727077 0.0443174109184 216% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.5 13.3589403974 124% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.07 53.8541721854 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 11.0289183223 125% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.0 12.2367328918 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.72 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 63.6247240618 132% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.498013245 122% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 83.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.0 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.