TPO 3 Integrated writing

The reading avers that the elderly women's portrait has some unusual characteristics that casts doubt that it was painted by Rembrandt, who was a renowned Dutch painter of the 1600s.It provides three reasons to support the claim. However, the speaker posits that the portrait was one of the Rembrandt's paintings and opposes all the reasons provided in the reading.

First, the article states that women's portrait is not persistent to the other paintings of Rembrandt as in that the lady's clothing is very simple that suggests that she was a servant but on the contrary she is also wearing expensive fur collar that contradicts that the women was employee. Since Rembrandt was famous for his deep insight regarding subject's attire, it looks like that painting doesn't belong to him. Although, the narrator claims that it was revealed from the X-ray and other analysis that the fur collar was not originally painted by the artist but it was added by some other person to make the appearance of painting more expensive. Moreover the collar was added over the top of original painting after 100 years.

Second, in the painting the women's face seems to be brightened from the light on the bottom side but due to the presence of dark collar the light was getting absorbed rather than being reflected. So the face appeared in the shadow. Considering Rembrandt was the expert in painting light and shadow, he was not supposed to make such huge mistake. On the other hand, the narrator asserts that when the fur collar was removed from the painting the face of women illuminated by the light and there was no shadow. So it was not painter's error.

Last, on evaluation it was found that the painting was painted on the panel made of many pieces of wood glued together. It was not the characteristic of Rembrandt painting. On the contrary, the orator describes that originally it was painted on single wood panel only which was similar to the other paintings of painter but later on the panel with pieces of wood was added to make it grander. So definitely the painting was one of the Rembrandt's creations.