hard · LSAT Logical Reasoning

Curator: Any painting that critics of its own era praised for technical mastery but dismissed as emotionally cold has, in every case we have studied, been reappraised by later generations as a masterpiece of restraint. The Halvorsen portrait was praised for technical mastery by critics of its era. So it will surely come to be regarded as a masterpiece of restraint. The reasoning in the curator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the ground that it

1. treats a pattern observed in previously studied cases as guaranteeing the outcome in a new case rather than merely making it probable
2. infers that a painting has a property from the fact that paintings resembling it in one respect have that property
3. takes a condition that the studied cases jointly satisfied to be met by a case shown to satisfy only part of that condition
4. presumes, without warrant, that the critics of the Halvorsen portrait's era were competent to judge technical mastery
5. overlooks the possibility that a later generation's reappraisal could itself be reversed by a still later generation

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