#15 - Must Be True

[avengingangel]

I was down to D & E, and ultimately chose E because I did not pick up on the causal relationship between the nature of Watteau's image and perception of the 18th century. Where does it say that 19th-cent. biographers considered the 18th century to be "witty and amiable" because of his works?? It seems like the aristocratic, influential perception of his work persisted thru the 19th century because that's exactly how they (19th cent. books/biographers/friends) wanted it to be perceived, not the other way around, as D suggests.

I chose E because of lines 14-18, "These engravings...by other artists"

Any additional explanation here would be helpful. Thanks!

[David Boyle]

I was down to D & E, and ultimately chose E because I did not pick up on the causal relationship between the nature of Watteau's image and perception of the 18th century. Where does it say that 19th-cent. biographers considered the 18th century to be "witty and amiable" because of his works?? It seems like the aristocratic, influential perception of his work persisted thru the 19th century because that's exactly how they (19th cent. books/biographers/friends) wanted it to be perceived, not the other way around, as D suggests.

I chose E because of lines 14-18, "These engravings...by other artists"

Any additional explanation here would be helpful. Thanks!

Hello,

Answer E suffers from there not being much evidence of a pro-aristocratic bias in the biographers mentioned after line 20. The lines before then repeatedly speak of the "image" Watteau conveyed, so that chimes with D being the correct answer.

David