Q17

[tzyc]

What does "more than any single artist before or since, Watteau provided his age with an influential image of itself" mean?
I thought when the question asks about the meaning of the word or interpretation, it would appear close to the word or phrase...
Also why did the author uses the word "betray"? Watteau knowingly painted against what his admiers thinking?

Thank you

[ohthatpatrick]

I'll be honest -- I'm having a really hard time understanding what you wrote. There are a lot of missing or confused words.

Your questions about Q18 should really go in a post for that question so that anything we discuss is available for other people to read.

It sounds like you had some trouble understanding the passage.

"Betray" can be used to mean "unintentionally reveals".

I could say, "She dressed in dirty clothing, but her manicured nails betrayed her wealth and refinement."

In this passage, the author is talking about an artist, Watteau, who was painting in the early 1700's.

People in the late 1800's who wrote about Watteau and loved him tend to think that Watteau's representation of early 1700's France is accurate.

The author disagrees. The author explains in the first paragraph why Watteau's work was so widely available and influential (which is why so many people know it and use it as a historical reference for the early 1700s).

The author then goes on to explain how Watteau barely saw the early 1700's France. What he DID see was bleak and filled with war, even though his admirers tend to ignore that stuff (it's in their blind spot).

Watteau was barely French, but his admirers like to pretend he is the essence of French.

When admirers were confronted with the fact that early 1700s France did not really match Watteau's paintings, they rationalized that Watteau PREDICTED how France in the 1700s was about to become.

Anyway, the whole passage is about the author yelling at all these people who wrote about Watteau in the late 1800s --- these people all say, "Watteau's paintings show us what life was really like in France in the early 1700s" and the author of this passage is yelling, "No they don't!"

So that's why (B) is the answer.

== other answers ==
(A) the author is not saying that people have overlooked an admirable quality of Watteau

(C) the author is almost saying the OPPOSITE of this ... "some writers" tend to treat Watteau as a source of information about the early 1700s France and the author thinks this is ridiculous

(D) the author is never saying people have UNDER-valued Watteau

(E) the author is not saying that people failed to appreciate OTHER artists working in Watteau's era.

Hope this helps.

[tzyc]

I corrected some sentences and moved the question to Q18.
I used my dictionary (it says "a change in wording" means saying the word in a different way) but I guess it's not commonly used expression...(sometimes the dictionary does not show how words generally used..)
By the way what does "more than any single artist before or since, Watteau provided his age with an influential image of itself" mean? Watteau was the most influential artist...?

And, thank you for the throughout explanations...(for my other questions too)
I really like&appreciate them

Thank you

[ohthatpatrick]

I interpreted "more than any single artist before or since, Watteau provided his age with an influential image of itself" as .. Watteau's age was the early 1700s, so this is saying that he provided a very influential image of the early 1700s.

The passage ends up being about how French people in the late 1800s look back at Watteau's works and think, "So THAT'S how it was in the early 1700s!"

The image portrayed by Watteau influenced so many French people that they "remembered" that period of history through the way it was portrayed in Watteau's works.

As a more modern example, The Beatles wrote music in the 1960's, and in many way when people think of the 1960s, they think of the world as it looked/sounded through the eyes of The Beatles.

The author is saying that Watteau put his stamp on the early 1700s to an even BIGGER degree.

[georxia]

I can see why B is correct.

But why can't be C be right? The people who are being curious blind are not evaluating a source of information of the past correctly. This source being history itself?

I think i chose C over B because of lines 36-38. Because those lines outrightly say they ignored the grim background of that period. Which is another way of saying willful refusal to evaluate properly.

Maybe how I'm approaching this problem is wrong especially since it's only talking about lines 2-3.

[duanyintian]

I'll be honest -- I'm having a really hard time understanding what you wrote. There are a lot of missing or confused words.

Your questions about Q18 should really go in a post for that question so that anything we discuss is available for other people to read.

It sounds like you had some trouble understanding the passage.

"Betray" can be used to mean "unintentionally reveals".

I could say, "She dressed in dirty clothing, but her manicured nails betrayed her wealth and refinement."

In this passage, the author is talking about an artist, Watteau, who was painting in the early 1700's.

People in the late 1800's who wrote about Watteau and loved him tend to think that Watteau's representation of early 1700's France is accurate.

The author disagrees. The author explains in the first paragraph why Watteau's work was so widely available and influential (which is why so many people know it and use it as a historical reference for the early 1700s).

The author then goes on to explain how Watteau barely saw the early 1700's France. What he DID see was bleak and filled with war, even though his admirers tend to ignore that stuff (it's in their blind spot).

Watteau was barely French, but his admirers like to pretend he is the essence of French.

When admirers were confronted with the fact that early 1700s France did not really match Watteau's paintings, they rationalized that Watteau PREDICTED how France in the 1700s was about to become.

Anyway, the whole passage is about the author yelling at all these people who wrote about Watteau in the late 1800s --- these people all say, "Watteau's paintings show us what life was really like in France in the early 1700s" and the author of this passage is yelling, "No they don't!"

So that's why (B) is the answer.

== other answers ==
(A) the author is not saying that people have overlooked an admirable quality of Watteau

(C) the author is almost saying the OPPOSITE of this ... "some writers" tend to treat Watteau as a source of information about the early 1700s France and the author thinks this is ridiculous

(D) the author is never saying people have UNDER-valued Watteau

(E) the author is not saying that people failed to appreciate OTHER artists working in Watteau's era.

Hope this helps.

------------------
The full article analysis is very helpful, thank you a lot, ohthatpatrick.

However, I have a quick question, what does this sentence mean and play a role in the third paragraph? "Those who took the inconvenient historical facts into consideration did so only in order to refute the widely held deterministic view that the content and style of an artist's work were absolutely dictated by heredity and environment. " In addition, what the word "inconvenient" here mean? Does it refer to the real history, if so, why bother author would like to mention it since it does not serve any sort of role to help author to argue with these admirers' ignorance at all. Can you specify a little bit more, please? Thank you, ohthatpatrick.