June 2007 - Sec 2 - LR - Q25

Video Transcript:

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Question 25.
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During the 19th century, the French Academy of Art was the major financial sponsor of
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painting and sculpture in France; sponsorship by private individuals had decreased dramatically
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by this time.
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Because the Academy discouraged innovation in the arts, there was little innovation in
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19th century French sculpture.
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Yet 19th century French painting showed a remarkable degree of innovation.
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First step, argument or facts?
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Clearly, we have a statement of facts here about the 19th century French art scene.
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In this time, the French Academy was a major financial sponsor of painting and sculpture.
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And the French Academy, discouraged innovation in the arts?so there was little innovation
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in 19th century French sculpture, but yet somehow painting showed remarkable innovation
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during the 19th century in France.
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Clearly, that doesn't make any sense.
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They were both sponsored by this French Academy, it was a major sponsor.
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Sponsorship by private individuals had decreased dramatically by this time.
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This Academy discouraged innovation.
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Sponsored both of these things.
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One of them had little innovation.
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The other one had a remarkable degree of innovation.
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You notice when we go to the question stem, Which one of the following, if true, most
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helps to explain the difference between the amount of innovation in French painting and
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the amount of innovation in French sculpture during the 19th century?
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Most helps to explain.
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We have a Paradox question, looking for an answer choice that is going to resolve this
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discrepancy.
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Again the discrepancy was that the sculpture showed little innovation, painting showed
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a remarkable degree of innovation, while they were both sponsored by this French Academy,
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but yet this Academy discouraged innovation in the arts.
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So (A), In France in the 19th century, the French Academy gave more of its financial
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support to painting than it did to sculpture.
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Okay, fine, but (A) doesn't help us, because still this organization discouraged innovation
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yet we saw innovation in painting but didn't see it in sculpture.
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That's the discrepancy.
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(A) does not help us.
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It's not about the amount of money; it's about this Academy discouraging innovation in the
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arts.
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(B), The French Academy in the 19th century financially supported a greater number of
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sculptors than painters, but individual painters received more support on average than individual
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sculptors.
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You notice (B), just like (A), deals with this idea of money.
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But again, it's not about the amount of support they receive.
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The problem is that this Academy discourages innovation.
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It's a major sponsor of both painting and sculpture, yet sculpture had a little innovation,
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painting, a remarkable degree of innovation.
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Please keep the discrepancy in mind when you go through the answer choices.
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You notice (A) and (B) do not solve our issue.
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Which brings us to (C), Because stone was so much more expensive than paint and canvas,
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far more unsponsored paintings were produced than were unsponsored sculptures in France
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during the 19th century.
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You notice (C) resolves this discrepancy by saying painters were far more likely to produce
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unsponsored paintings than were sculpturers because the problem was that stone was much
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more expensive.
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So it was these unsponsored paintings that had this remarkable degree of innovation,
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or at least that's a possibility and a possible explanation for this discrepancy, so (C) would
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be the correct answer.
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Again, just making sure, checking (D).
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Very few artists in France in the 19th century who produced sculptures also produced paintings.
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Completely irrelevant.
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How does that help us?
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Doesn't resolve anything.
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Moving to (E), Although the Academy was the primary sponsor of sculpture and painting,
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the total amount of financial support that sculptors and painters received from sponsors
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declined in the 19th century.
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Okay, fine.
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Still, the primary sponsor discouraged innovation.
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We saw little innovation in sculptures but a remarkable degree of innovation in painting.
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That is the discrepancy.
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(E) does not help us, so (E) would be eliminated.