The two paintings

Okay so like. I think Armand has vestigial Stockholm syndrome that makes him very delusionally think that Marius is a better artist than he actually is/was(I haven’t read the books) When looking at the painting of himself( the “Shepards with donor” one)Armand says that this painter wasn’t nearly as good as Marius and I think that is super not true. Just looking at the hands in each close up, the donor painting is so much more dynamic, layered, and flowing. Marius has muted non cohesive colors, jilted anatomy, and what looks like maybe only a couple crude layers. This has to be on purpose, they could’ve commissioned any level of painting in any style they wanted. Is Marius canonically not that great of a painter??