Close analysis of the painting Girl with a Flute, long attributed to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, has revealed...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Close analysis of the painting Girl with a Flute, long attributed to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, has revealed subtle deviations from the artist's signature techniques. These variations suggest that the work may be that of a student under Vermeer's tutelage—potentially _______ our understanding of Vermeer as a solitary artist.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
negating
prefiguring
entrenching
substantiating
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Close analysis of the painting Girl with a Flute, long attributed to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, has revealed subtle deviations from the artist's signature techniques." |
|
| "These variations suggest that the work may be that of a student under Vermeer's tutelage" |
|
| "our understanding of Vermeer as a solitary artist." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: New analysis suggests Girl with a Flute might be by a Vermeer student rather than Vermeer himself, which would affect how we understand Vermeer's working methods.
Argument Flow: The passage moves from presenting research findings that challenge attribution, to proposing an alternative explanation (student work), to considering what this would mean for our broader understanding of the artist.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- If the painting was created by a student rather than Vermeer himself, this would challenge the idea that Vermeer was a solitary artist who worked alone
- The missing word needs to show how this discovery would affect our current understanding
- The relationship we need is one where the new evidence (student involvement) works against or contradicts the established view (Vermeer as solitary)
- We need a word that means challenging, contradicting, or undermining
negating
- Negating means contradicting or nullifying something
- If a student helped create the work, this would directly contradict the view of Vermeer as working solo
- Perfectly matches our prethinking about needing a word that shows contradiction
prefiguring
- Prefiguring means foreshadowing or anticipating something that will happen later
- This doesn't make logical sense - the discovery isn't anticipating our understanding, it's affecting it right now
entrenching
- Entrenching means establishing something more firmly or deeply
- This would mean the discovery makes us believe even more strongly that Vermeer worked alone
- This is the opposite of what the logic requires
substantiating
- Substantiating means providing evidence to support something
- This would mean the discovery supports our view of Vermeer as solitary
- This is backwards - evidence of collaboration contradicts rather than supports the idea of working alone