Rembrandt is the most famous of the seventeenth-century Dutch painters. However, there are doubts that some paintings attributed to Rembrandt were actually painted by him. One such painting is known as Potrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet. The painting was attributed to Rembrandt because of its style, and
indeed the representation of the woman’s face is very much like that of portraits
known to be by Rembrandt. But there are problems with the painting that suggest it
could not be a work by Rembrandt.
First, there is something inconsistent about the way the woman in the portrait is
dressed. She is wearing a white linen cap of a kind that only servants would wear—
yet the coat she is wearing has a luxurious fur collar that no servant could afford.
Rembrandt, who was known for his attention to the details of his subjects’ clothing,
would not have been guilty of such an inconsistency.
Second, Rembrandt was a master of painting light and shadow, but in this paint-
ing these elements do not fit together. The face appears to be illuminated by light
reflected onto it from below. But below the face is the dark fur collar, which would
absorb light rather than reflect it. So the face should appear partially in shadow—
which is not how it appears. Rembrandt would never have made such an error.
Finally, examination of the back of the painting reveals that it was painted on a
panel made of several pieces of wood glued together. Although Rembrandt often
painted on wood panels, no painting known to be by Rembrandt uses a panel glued
together in this way from several pieces of wood.
For these reasons the painting was removed from the official catalog of Rem-
brandt’s paintings in the 1930s
The passage narrates that despite being the most famous painter of the seventeenth-century, there are a few doubts about Rembrandt's paintings and it provides three reasons for the same.
However, the professor explains that the paintings do belong to Rembrandt and she refutes each of the author's reasons.
Firstly, the reading mentions the inconsistency in the clothing of the woman in the painting. It displays a white linen cap usually worn by servants along with a coat that has a fur collar, which is too luxurious for them. However, the professor states that the fur collar was added about a hundred years after the original painting was made in order to increase its value. Upon its removal, it was found that the original painting had a simple collar.
Secondly, the reading posits that the painting lacks a fitting of light and shadow. But the professor explains that this inadequecy is due to the fur collar that was added later. The face of the woman is illuminated by the light which reflects off of the original simple collar. Thus, the illumination of the face is justified in contrast with the passage stating that it should appear partially in shadow due to the presence of the fur collar.
Finally, the passage states that the examination of the painting reveals that it was painted on a panel of several pieces of wood glued together. But the professor explains that the original art was made on a single piece of wood and the remaining pieces were added later on in order to enhance the grandeur of the painting.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, thus, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1278.0 1373.03311258 93% => OK
No of words: 264.0 270.72406181 98% => OK
Chars per words: 4.84090909091 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.03089032464 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64297325406 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 129.0 145.348785872 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.488636363636 0.540411800872 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 387.9 419.366225166 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 36.1762660072 49.2860985944 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.5 110.228320801 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.83333333333 7.06452816374 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.185364778001 0.272083759551 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0731924081256 0.0996497079465 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0711273589958 0.0662205650399 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.123910213984 0.162205337803 76% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0682223436378 0.0443174109184 154% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 13.3589403974 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 53.8541721854 107% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.79 12.2367328918 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.14 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 57.0 63.6247240618 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.