16Hit1600
Information and IdeasMediumFinding supporting a claim about a painting's date

Information and Ideas practice question

An art historian claims that the portrait was painted after 1750.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the historian's claim?

  1. A. The blue in the sitter's coat is Prussian blue mixed with a synthetic white that was not manufactured until the 1760s.Correct
  2. B. The sitter is wearing a coat.
  3. C. The frame was made in 1700.
  4. D. Portraits were popular in the eighteenth century.

Answer: A. The blue in the sitter's coat is Prussian blue mixed with a synthetic white that was not manufactured until the 1760s.

A pigment unavailable before the 1760s puts the painting after 1750.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The sitter is wearing a coat.
Clothing alone dates nothing here.
C. The frame was made in 1700.
A frame can be older or newer than its painting.
D. Portraits were popular in the eighteenth century.
Popularity spans the whole century.

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