To critics accustomed to the style of
fifteenth-century narrative paintings by Italian
artists from Tuscany, the Venetian examples of
narrative paintings with religious subjects that
(5) Patricia Fortini Brown analyzes in a recent book
will come as a great surprise. While the Tuscan
paintings present large-scale figures, clear
narratives, and simple settings, the Venetians filled
their pictures with dozens of small figures and
(10) elaborate buildings, in addition to a wealth of
carefully observed anecdotal detail often irrelevant
to the paintings’ principal subjects—the religious
stories they narrate. Although it occasionally
obscured these stories, this accumulation of
(15) circumstantial detail from Venetian life—the
inclusion of prominent Venetian citizens, for
example—was considered appropriate to the
narration of historical subjects and underlined
the authenticity of the historical events depicted.
(20) Indeed, Brown argues that the distinctive style of
the Venetian paintings—what she calls the
“eyewitness style”—was influenced by Venetian
affinity for a strongly parochial type of historical
writing, consisting almost exclusively of vernacular
(25) chronicles of local events embroidered with all
kinds of inconsequential detail.

And yet, while Venetian attitudes toward history
that are reflected in their art account in part for the
difference in style between Venetian and Tuscan
(30) narrative paintings, Brown has overlooked some
practical influences, such as climate. Tuscan churches
are filled with frescoes that, in contrast to Venetian
narrative paintings, consist mainly of large figures
and easily recognized religious stories, as one would
(35) expect of paintings that are normally viewed from a
distance and are designed primarily to remind the
faithful of their religious tenets. In Venice, where
the damp climate is unsuited to fresco, narrative
frescoes in churches were almost nonexistent, with
(40) the result that Venetian artists and their public had
no practical experience of the large-scale
representation of familiar religious stories. Their
model for painted stories was the cycle of secular
historical paintings in the Venetian magistrate’s
(45) palace, which were indeed the counterpart of
written history and were made all the more
authoritative by a proliferation of circumstantial
detail.

Moreover, because painting frescoes requires an
(50) unusually sure hand, particularly in the representation
of the human form, the development of drawing
skill was central to artistic training in Tuscany, and by
1500 the public there tended to distinguish
artists on the basis of how well they could draw
(55) human figures. In Venice, a city virtually without
frescoes, this kind of skill was acquired and
appreciated much later. Gentile Bellini, for
example, although regarded as one of the supreme
painters of the day, was feeble at drawing. On the
(60) other hand, the emphasis on architecture so evident
in the Venetian narrative paintings was something
that local painters obviously prized, largely because
painting architecture in perspective was seen as a
particular test of the Venetian painter’s skill.

1. Which one of the following best states the main idea of the passage?

(A) Tuscan painters’ use of fresco explains the prominence of human figures in the narrative paintings that they produced during the fifteenth century.
(B) In addition to fifteenth-century Venetian attitudes toward history, other factors may help to explain the characteristic features of Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects produced during that period.
(C) The inclusion of authentic detail from Venetian life distinguished fifteenth-century Venetian narrative paintings from those that were produced in Tuscany.
(D) Venetian painters were generally more skilled at painting buildings than Tuscan painters were at drawing human forms.
(E) The cycle of secular historical paintings in the Venetian magistrate’s palace was the primary influence on fifteenth-century Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects.


2. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

(A) pointing out the superiority of one painting style over another
(B) citing evidence that requires a reevaluation of a conventionally held view
(C) discussing factors that explain a difference in painting styles
(D) outlining the strengths and weaknesses of two opposing views regarding the evolution of a painting style
(E) arguing for the irrelevance of one theory and for its replacement by a more plausible alternative


3. As it is described in the passage, Brown’s explanation of the use of the eyewitness style in Venetian narrative painting suggests that

(A) the painting of architecture in perspective requires greater drawing skill than does the representation of a human form in a fresco
(B) certain characteristics of a style of painting can reflect a style of historical writing that was common during the same period
(C) the eyewitness style in Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects was largely the result of the influence of Tuscan artists who worked primarily in fresco
(D) the historical detail in Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects can be traced primarily to the influence of the paintings in the Venetian magistrate’s palace
(E) a style of painting can be dramatically transformed by a sudden influx of artists from another region


4. The author suggests that fifteenth-century Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects were painted by artists who

(A) were able to draw human figures with more skill after they were apprenticed to painters in Tuscany
(B) assumed that their paintings would typically be viewed from a distance
(C) were a major influence on the artists who produced the cycle of historical paintings in the Venetian magistrate’s palace
(D) were reluctant to paint frescoes primarily because they lacked the drawing skill that painting frescoes required
(E) were better at painting architecture in perspective than they were at drawing human figures


5. The author implies that Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects included the representation of elaborate buildings in part because

(A) the ability to paint architecture in perspective was seen in Venice as proof of a painter’s skill
(B) the subjects of such paintings were often religious stories
(C) large frescoes were especially conducive to representing architecture in perspective
(D) the architecture of Venice in the fifteenth century was more elaborate than was the architecture of Tuscany
(E) the paintings were imitations of a kind of historical writing that was popular in Tuscany


6. Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s contention that fifteenth-century Venetian artists “had no practical experience of the large-scale representation of familiar religious stories” (lines 40–42)?

(A) The style of secular historical paintings in the palace of the Venetian magistrate was similar to that of Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects.
(B) The style of the historical writing produced by fifteenth-century Venetian authors was similar in its inclusion of anecdotal details to secular paintings produced during that century in Tuscany.
(C) Many of the artists who produced Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects served as apprentices in Tuscany, where they had become familiar with the technique of painting frescoes.
(D) Few of the frescoes painted in Tuscany during the fifteenth century had secular subjects, and those that did often betrayed the artist’s inability to represent elaborate architecture in perspective.
(E) Few of the Venetian narrative paintings produced toward the end of the fifteenth century show evidence of the enhanced drawing skill that characterized the paintings produced in Venice a century later.