PrepTest 106, Section 2, Question 10
Curator: The decision to restore the cloak of(101 more words not shown)
The art critic's response to(14 more words not shown)
- AThe copy of(15 more words not shown)
- BNo painting should(11 more words not shown)
- CThe proposed restoration(18 more words not shown)
- DThe value of(16 more words not shown)
- EVeronese did not(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if Veronese approved the change himself? Paint mixed outside his workshop and added after completion could still have been applied at his direction. The curator has a case for suspecting an alteration, but those facts don't by themselves settle whether returning to green restores the version Veronese wanted.
The critic points to a copy made shortly after Veronese died. Its cloak is red, and the critic considers it unlikely that the copyist would have introduced such a major change. That suggests the copyist was reproducing a red cloak already present in the original.
Notice that this isn't a claim that repainting would take too long. The critic questions whether a copyist would choose to depart so substantially from the painting being copied. We could still ask whether someone altered the original in the interval after Veronese died. The evidence doesn't make every alternative impossible.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what the critic's response most strongly supports. My broad expectation is a challenge to the curator's account of tampering and the need to undo it. We should choose the conclusion the early-copy evidence supports, without inflating that challenge into certainty that no one ever changed anything.
Working the answers
- A
Matching the cloak's color doesn't establish that the entire copy is indistinguishable from the original. The copy could differ in detail, size, technique, or other colors. The critic's point about this conspicuous feature cannot establish perfect agreement in every respect.
- B
The critic proposes no universal rule about testing paintings before restoration. The curator already has test results; the disagreement is about what those results justify in this case. A requirement for technologically sophisticated testing of every painting goes beyond that dispute.
- CCorrect
The early copy's red cloak suggests that the original was red at or near the end of Veronese's life. If that was its appearance then, changing the cloak to green would not restore that appearance; it would replace it with a different one.
This makes the broad objection to “undoing tampering” more precise. We don't have to prove the original was never altered. Veronese might have changed his mind or approved a revision before his death. The relevant point is that a green restoration would not recover the red version the critic's evidence suggests existed at the end of his lifetime.
- D
The critic doesn't evaluate whether later changes increase or decrease a work's value. The response concerns the evidence for the cloak's historical color and, through that, the proposed restoration. A view about value could be true without following from those facts.
- E
What Veronese originally intended could differ from what he wanted or allowed later. He might initially have intended a green cloak and subsequently accepted a red one. Evidence about the painting near the end of his lifetime doesn't establish that he never originally intended green.
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