Passage Discussion

[CelineN599]

Can I get the scale for this? I can piece the rest myself with the scale. Thank you.

[ohthatpatrick]

Sure thing --- I'd say this passage DOES have scale (they don't always) and that the last sentence of the passage sounds a lot like the author encapsulating that scale:

POSITION 1 (Alpers):
Rembrandt really thought of his paintings as commodities and his style as a brand, so the fact that there are paintings we think of as from him that aren't really made by him is unsurprising (he would have considered them 'Rembrandts', because they were churned out by his studio).

POSITION 2 (author):
Yes, some paintings were marketed as Rembrandts even though they weren't made by him, but we shouldn't emphasize Rembrandt's interest in the business side of painting so much that it overshadows Rembrandt's artistic innovation and talent.


The passage almost seems to be heading somewhere else when we begin by saying, "turns out that a bunch of so-called Rembrandt's are FAKES!"

We might have anticipated a debate over whether they're really fake, or whether their fakeness really changes R's artistic stature or legacy.

Instead, we get this author Alpers who uses this initial topic as a point of departure for the REAL focus of the passage: what should we emphasize about Rembrandt's approach to painting?

Alpers is arguing we should understand Rembrandt as an entertainment mogul.
The author is saying that that's an overstatement and we should still care way more about the artistic (not economic) motivations of Rembrandt.

[CelineN599]

Ohhhh. This passage was a bit more difficult for me to understand than usual starter ones. Thank you so much Patrick!