By the mid-nineteenth century, the conviction of early nineteenth-century European intellectuals and artists that the willful, energetic dynamism of the human imagination creates what we know of reality was being reshaped. In philosophy, the adherents of positivism argued that nature is independent of the imagination and that knowledge consists only in the proper connection of sense data. Historian like von Ranke and Buckle argued that the existence of "objective fact" enabled them to record with accuracy what actually happened in the past. And W. K. Clifford, in 1874 claimed that "all competent people" accept that sensation, thought, and emotion can be explained by "change in the condition of the matter" in the brain.
For the creative arts, the most influential evidence for an objective reality independent of the imagination came as a result of the rapid changes in photography during the 1850's. The immense effort of the previous generation of Romantic poets and painters to undo the damage of empiricism by proving that the imagination creates reality was completely undermined. They had worked passionately to convince others that their versions of the world were real, though hostile critics had found 11 easy to dispute such claims. Now, with the advent of photography, the painters' position became untenable. The mindless photograph challenged the poet or painter to deny that an objective, despicable nature was out there separate from the mind.
Painters, as if shamed by the precision of photo-graphic images, began to paint not the greatest number of the greatest ideas, which art critic John Ruskin had held before than as a goal, but the greatest amount of accurate surface detail. Art once again turned from the lamp within toward the skills required to mirror social reality.
Novels of the mid-nineteenth century also show the effects of this growing concern with the “real” external world. No matter how visionary their approach, novelists strove to convince readers of the real-life accuracy of their fictions. Novelists such as Trollope and Thackeray begin novels by points out that the romance of narrative and extravagance of style practiced by their predecessors are eschewed in the present faithful account. In the preface to Bleak House, Dickens defends the symbolic episode of Krook's spontaneous combustion as documented fact with "about thirty cases on record".
On the stage, there was increased concern with verisimilitude. The steady progress from artfulness to naturalness can be charted most graphically in opera. From formal arrangements of dance and song, from mathematically arranged distortions and enhancements of human movements and human voice: opera moved step by step toward creating the illusion of real people engaged in reactions. The areas were absorbed increasingly into the flow of the drama, and verismo opera was the predictable outcome.
1. According to the passage, those critical of Romantic poets and painters contended that the works of these artists (A) were too thoroughly influenced by empiricism
(B) ignored the evidence of objective reality provided by photographs
(C) presented a false representation of reality
(D) failed to consider social reality
(E) made no attempt to depict nature
2. It can be inferred that, in presenting an account of nineteenth-century thought, the author of the pas-sage assumes which of the following? (A) Philosophers and historians in a given period directly influence the work of painters and novelists of that period.
(B) Artists in any area of the creative arts imitate other artists in their area.
(C) Realist artists are generally less sophisticated than are Romantic artists.
(D) Trends in a particular artistic or intellectual area can often be related to concurrent trends in other areas.
(E) The nineteenth century was radically different from the preceding century.
3. The changes in mid-nineteenth century artistic expression, as they are described in the passage, would have been LEAST likely to result in which of the following?(A) An opera about the struggles of a group of young artists in Paris
(B) A drama about the unhappy marriage of an American woman and a European man
(C) A novel about the short-lived revolt of a group of coal miners in Wales
(D) A painting depicting the triumph in battle of a mythical Greek hero'
(E) A painting of a street market in London
4. According to the passage, which of the following was one of the tenets held by Romantic artists?(A) Nature is best understood by the patient examination of small details.
(B) Reality is constituted by the action of the human mind.
(C) The function of art is to mirror social reality.
(D) The-most important quality of any piece of art is the extravagance of its style.
(E) The form of art must express the function of its elements.
5. According to the passage, Ruskin recommended that painters concern themselves with(A) maintaining the independence of the imagination
(B) the representation of ideas
(C) accurate depiction of surface detail
(D) human activities
(E) the presentation of moral dilemmas
6. The author's use of the word "mindless" (Highlighted) implies that he believes that which of the following is true of mid-nineteenth-century views of photography?(A) The photographer was regarded as a creative artist.
(B) A photograph's content was regarded as completely uninfluenced by the photographer.
(C) It was believed that photographs could not be analyzed in the way paintings could.
(D) Technique was assumed to be less artistic in photography than in painting.
(E) It was believed that the relative accuracy of paintings and photographs should not be compared.
7. The passage implies by the phrase "to mirror social reality" (Highlighted) that mid-nineteenth-century painters attempted to(A) depict the truth of character behind the mask of physical appearance
(B) convey their own unique vision of people in social settings
(C) reproduce faithfully what they saw around them
(D) concentrate primarily on the refinement of technique
(E) intensify their imaginative visions by exaggerating surface detail
8. The author refers to Dickens (Text in Red) to illustrate which of the following?(A) The degree to which nineteenth-century novelists wished to disassociate themselves from their predecessors
(B) The excessive faithfulness to detail that characterized Dickens' work
(C) The manner in which the development of photography influenced even nongraphic art
(D) The unbroken connection between positivist philosophers and the major novelists of the nineteenth century
(E) The extent to which nineteenth-century novelists wished to have their work defined as realistic