Until now, this painting was believed to be a self portrait of the art

Question

Until now, this painting was believed to be a self portrait of the artist, but it probably is not. True, the heavy gold chain worn by the gentleman in the picture is similar to one presented to the artist by the Queen of England after he had painted her portrait. But the sword hanging at the gentleman’s hip suggests that he was a knight, a rank higher than any the artist ever attained.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s argument?

(A) Historians cannot determine whether the artist was ever knighted.

(B) The artist painted only one self-portrait in his entire life.

(C) Several gentlemen of the artist’s day wore heavy gold chains like the one in the painting.

(D) The gentleman in the painting resembles portraits of the artist painted by other artists.

(E) The artist was the only gentleman of his day who received a heavy gold chain from the Queen of England.

seekmba · Answer

Is the author's argument that the portrait was not the artist's self-protrait? and this what we have to strengthen?

I totally misunderstood the question.

amp0201 · Answer

(A) Historians cannot determine whether the artist was ever knighted.
  -- This information is neutral. Hence A cannot be correct answer choice.

(B) The artist painted only one self-portrait in his entire life.
  -- This information is also neutral. It is neither strengthening or weakening the argument. Hence B cannot be correct answer choice.

(C) Several gentlemen of the artist’s day wore heavy gold chains like the one in the painting.
  -- If this statement is true, it will definitely strengthen the author's conclusion. Hence C is a correct answer choice.

(D) The gentleman in the painting resembles portraits of the artist painted by other artists.
 -- Irrelevant.

(E) The artist was the only gentleman of his day who received a heavy gold chain from the Queen of England.
 -- This is a opposite answer. It is weakening the author's conclusion. Hence E is not a correct answer choice.

tryingharder · Answer

C is strengthening. Rest all are absurd.

ingoditrust · Answer

C is the only correct one, rest are either weakening the conclusion or out of scope.

vudsri000 · Answer

I went with D .........after spending time .......C.....ok..but whats wrong with D ...

jananijayakumar · Answer

Easy C!! Cannot be a 700-level question! Not D because, we do not know what other artists painted. Basically Out of scope.

nusmavrik · Answer

Had it been -----> (B) The artist painted only one self-portrait portrait in his entire life. ??? Wouldn't that strengthen the argument? :wink:

So it blows away the theory "this painting was believed to be a self portrait of the artist". I am assuming self portrait is a portrait of oneself done by oneself. D and E weaken if anything - weaken the argument.

geturdream · Answer

easy one Its C

Support for self portrait:
GOLD CHAIN
sword hanging at the gentleman’s hip

argument :
sword suggests that the gentleman was a knight
the artist has never attained the rank

so if we have an argument that says other people also have the same kind of gold chain , we can strengthen the conclusion

C exactly does that

mvictor · Answer

sincerely, I do not get how C is right...
the conclusion states that the painting might not be a self portrait.
then we have 2 premises...
1 - golden chain
2 - sword on hip
then we have a fact K>A.

how does C strengthens the conclusion that is is probably not a self portrait?
what if the artist wore the chains so that he would get himself a nice self portrait?
how does this mean that it's not a self portrait???? I dont see why we can not infer gentleman is not the same as artist, or that gentleman = knight.
I was expecting smth like: knights wore golden chains, etc.
but this...????

Vanki · Answer

The ans is C. Only C provides information which strengthens the conclusion.

chesstitans · Answer

the question succeeds in driving me crazy in the first place. Then, I realize that there are 2 facts in the argument. C will give the reason to eliminate the former; as a result, the second fact and the conclusion will be strengthened.

Prateek176 · Answer

AjiteshArun  ,  VeritasKarishma

I am still unsure what is the problem with D. Can we elaborately discuss options C and D??

AjiteshArun · Answer

The author believes that the person in the portrait is  not  the artist. We need to  strengthen  this.

Option C says that many people wore heavy gold chains like the one in the portrait. Therefore, the gold chain that was presented to the artist is less likely to identify the person in the portrait as the artist (many other people had similar chains).

Option D says that the person in the portrait looks like the one in the portraits of the artist made by other artists. If there is a resemblance between this portrait and the portraits that are  known  to be of the artist, then it is more likely that this portrait is of the artist. This option  weakens  the argument.

pytha1gurus · Answer

The question is to strengthen the argument. Let’s try to solve this question. The conclusion made by the author is that the painting is not a self-portrait of the artist and the premise provided is though there is a heavy gold chain worn by the gentleman in the picture which is similar to the one presented by the Queen, however, the sword hanging on the gentleman’s hip suggests that he was a knight and this rank has not been attained by any artist ever.

The correct answer choice will validate the claim that the portrait is not of the artist.

Let’s do POE

A- Out of scope. We are not concerned about what historians can’t determine

B- We can’t say

C- This justifies the conclusion suggesting that based on the gold chain it can't be inferred that the portrait is of the artist. Correct

D- Out of scope

E- This weakens the claim made in the argument.
All the best!!
Consistency is the key.
PythaGURUS Faculty Team

analytica233 · Answer

I want to take a closer look at (D)
(D) The gentleman in the painting resembles portraits of the artist painted by other artists.

I think (D) is not irrelevant but weakens the author's conclusion that the painting is probably NOT a self-portrait of the artist." Note that in the argument the author says "THE artist", which means a particular/specific artist. If (D) is true, then it is more likely that the painting is a self-portrait of THE artist because it looks similar to portraits of THE artist by other artists. Hence, (D) weakens the conclusion and is incorrect.

(A) Historians cannot determine whether the artist was ever knighted. -- WEAKEN

(B) The artist painted only one self-portrait in his entire life. - IRRELEVANT

(C) Several gentlemen of the artist’s day wore heavy gold chains like the one in the painting. --STRENGTHEN (correct)

(D) The gentleman in the painting resembles portraits of the artist painted by other artists. -- WEAKEN

(E) The artist was the only gentleman of his day who received a heavy gold chain from the Queen of England. -- WEAKEN

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Until now, this painting was believed to be a self portrait of the art

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Until now, this painting was believed to be a self portrait of the art

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