Logical Reasoning

PT142 · S4 · Q16 Most commentators on Baroque

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Most commentators on Baroque painting consider Caravaggio an early practitioner of that style, believing that his realism and novel use of the interplay of light and shadow broke sharply with current styles of Caravaggio's time and significantly influenced seventeenth-century Baroque painting.

Conclusion (therefore)

One must abandon the opinion of this majority of commentators or reject Mather's definition that says Baroque paintings must display opulence, heroic sweep, and extravagance.

Evidence

Most commentators consider Caravaggio an early Baroque artist.

Evaluate

The conclusion is saying, .

Either the commentators' opinion is wrong, or Mather's definition of Baroque is wrong. They're mutually exclusive.

Once we insert the specific ideas into those placeholders, the conclusion becomes,

Apparently, our author doesn't think that Caravaggio's paintings fit Mather's definition of Baroque.

Goal

We need to prove that Caravaggio's paintings don't fit Mather's definition. So we need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance

16.

The conclusion of the argument can be properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?

  1. Paintings that belong to a

    Unrelated to Goal

    Since our job here is to prove that you cannot call Caravaggio a Baroque artist, using Mather's definition, we need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance This answer doesn't tell us anything about Caravaggio's paintings.

    3% picked this

  2. A painter who makes use

    Unrelated to Goal

    We need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance His paintings do "make use of the interplay of light and shadow", so this answer can tell us that, "Caravaggio need not be considered a nonrealistic painter". Beyond being a very weak idea (he doesn't need to be considered nonrealistic, but he still could be), this has nothing to do with establishing that he doesn't fit Mather's definition of Baroque.

    2% picked this

  3. Realism was not widely used

    Unrelated to Goal

    We need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance This answer doesn't tell us anything about Caravaggio's paintings.

    2% picked this

  4. A realistic painting usually does

    Trap

    Too Weak Out of Scope: depict the world We need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance His paintings are realistic, and this answer is saying "most realistic paintings don't depict the world as opulent, heroic, or extravagant". Does that prove that Caravaggio's paintings don't depict the world that way? No. So in that sense this answer is too weak to definitively tell us anything about Caravaggio's paintings. But this is also twisting wording around. We don't care whether the painting depicts the world as opulent, heroic, or extravagant. Per Mather's definition, we care whether the painting itself displays opulence, heroic sweep, or extravagance.

    13% picked this

  5. Correct

    Opulence, heroic sweep, and extravagance

    Why this is right

    We need to know at least one of these things about Caravaggio's paintings: - they don't display opulence - they don't have heroic sweep - they don't have extravagance This tells us all three! Since Caravaggio's paintings don't have any of these qualities, they would not qualify as Baroque according to Mather's definition. Thus, either most commentators are wrong to call his paintings Baroque, or Mather's definition of Baroque is wrong.

    Skill tested: Sufficient Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    80% picked this

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