Dutch painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often showed tables filled with large wheels of cheese or carved shards of butter. Some art historians, noting that dairy products were a major component of the Dutch diet, interpret these depictions as reflections of everyday Dutch eating habits. However, a group of researchers recently reviewed hundreds of food-related paintings and found that lemons--which could only be acquired in the Netherlands at great cost, since they had to be imported from warmer climates--feature in Dutch paintings of the period more than three times as frequently as dairy products do, thereby casting doubt on the idea that ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Question

Accepted Answer

depictions of food in Dutch paintings of the period should be taken as realistic representations of Dutch eating habits.

Answer

dairy products were a more significant component of the Dutch diet of the period than lemons were.

Answer

food was a more popular subject among Dutch painters than it was among painters from other countries at the time.

Answer

Dutch painters of the period may have depicted foods for symbolic reasons rather than to show what Dutch people typically ate.