A portrait type that appeared with relentless frequency in eighteenth-century England is the familiar image of a gentleman poised with one hand inside his partially unbuttoned waistcoat. Ok this is how looks like the entire stuff of the first sentence
Standard interpretations of this portrait posture offer observations of correspondence—demonstrating either that it mirrors actual social behavior or that it borrows from classical statuary.
The pose of the image above is the result of:
1) a commune social instance or way of acting or behave
2) a statue somewhere inspired that pose
Such explanations, however, illuminate neither the source of this curious convention nor the reason for its popularity. Even though we would know the source, this source does not tell us WHY we used that pose - at least in the middle-upper class of the time - and WHY it was soooo popular
It is true that in real life the "hand-in" was a common stance for elite men. The elite men,
particularly, used that pose
Still, there were other ways of comporting the body that did not become winning portrait formulas. Other ways to posture the body did not become so popular or familiar
And even if the "hand-in' portrait does resemble certain classical statues, what accounts for the adoption of this particular pose?Even if this particular pose, hand-in coat, mimics certain statues' poses WHY we adopted this, in particular ?????????
In the passage above, the author asks to himself a lot of WHY. We need a possible explanation to satisfy his WHY and why the stance was popular or adopted.
Notice the word "might" = could be true
Which of the following might provide an explanation for the popularity of hand-in portraits that would satisfy the author of the passage?
❑ An eighteenth-century English etiquette manual discussing the social implications of the "hand-in" stance
Could be because the stance was popular among upper class
❑ A comprehensive catalogue of eighteenth-century English portraits that showed what
proportion of portraits depicted gentlemen in the "hand-in" stance
The proportion does not help us WHY was popular. We do not have enough information on how this catalog was extensive or included how many portraits. Moreover of all the portraits in the catalog, the proportion ???? in other words, we need a ratio : portraits with stance over all portraits in the catalogue.
mmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh
Not sure we could have a ratio and relate this to possible popularity. To obscure for me is B to be true
❑ A passage from an eighteenth-century English novel in which a gentleman
considers what stance to adopt when his portrait is painted
yes could be. why people adopted the stance thanks to a novel in which gentlemen adopted it could be useful to understand why the stance was popular
Hope now is more clear
Attachment:
screenshot.739.jpg [ 378.66 KiB | Viewed 417 times ]