All of Francoise Duparc’s surviving paintings blend portraiture and genre. Her subjects appear to be acquaintances whom she has asked to pose; she has captured both their self-consciousness and the spontaneity of their everyday activities, the depiction of which characterizes genre painting. But genre painting, especially when it portrayed members of the humblest classes, was never popular in eighteenth-century France. The Le Nain brothers and Georges de La Tour, who also chose such themes, were largely ignored. Their present high standing is due to a different, more democratic political climate and to different aesthetic values: we no longer require artists to provide ideal images of humanity for our moral edification but rather regard such idealization as a falsification of the truth. Duparc gives no improving message and discreetly refrains from judging her subjects. In brief, her works neither elevate nor instruct. This restraint largely explains her lack of popular success during her lifetime, even if her talent did not go completely unrecognized by her eighteenth-century French contemporaries.
24. According to the passage, modern viewers are not likely to value which of the following qualities in a painting?
(A) The technical elements of the painting
(B) The spontaneity of the painting
(C) The moral lesson imparted by the painting
(D) The degree to which the painting realistically depicts its subject(C)
(E) The degree to which the artist’s personality is revealed in the painting
25. If the history of Duparc’s artistic reputation were to follow that of the Le Nain brothers and Georges de La Tour, present-day assessments of her work would be likely to contain which of the following?
(A) An evaluation that accords high status to her work
(B) Acknowledgement of her technical expertise but dismissal of her subject matter as trivial
(C) Agreement with assessments made in her own time but acknowledgements of the exceptional quality of a few of her paintings
(D) Placement of her among the foremost artists of her century(A)
(E) A reclassification of her work as portraiture rather than genre painting
26. It can be inferred from the passage that the term “genre painting” would most likely apply to which of the following?
(A) A painting depicting a glorious moment of victory following a battle
(B) A painting illustrating a narrative from the Bible
(C) A portrayal of a mythological Greek goddess
(D) A portrayal of a servant engaged in his work(D)
(E) A formal portrait of an eighteenth-century king
27. The argument of the passage best supports which of the following contentions concerning judgments of artistic work?
(A) Aesthetic judgments can be influenced by the political beliefs of those making the judgment.
(B) Judgments of the value of an artist’s work made by his or her contemporaries must be discounted before a true judgment can be made.
(C) Modern aesthetic taste is once again moving in the direction of regarding idealistic painting as the most desirable form of painting.
(D) In order to be highly regarded, an artist cannot be solely identified with one particular kind of painting.(A)
(E) Spontaneity is the most valuable quality a portrait painter can have.
