Couldn’t they tell that objects farther away appear smaller?
In: Other
In addition to the very well put earlier comment, another reason that perspective does not show up very often in early paintings is money. (Simplistic, but it’s ELI5)
The people with the money were the ones paying for the paintings to be made, be it the church or a nobleman. Those people had a very specific message to get across and they wanted it done as efficiently as possible.
A painter can fit a lot more saints into a painting if they can just cram then in every which way. They can also fit in symbols like birds or whatever, much more easily. If they filled the canvas with unnecessary buildings, it takes away room that could be spent making a point. Same deal with perspective, if things get smaller, you can’t see them as well. (See ‘Madonna Enthroned’ c1280 by Cimabue as an example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cimabue_-_Maest%C3%A0_di_Santa_Trinita_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg )
There is an awesome example of a religious artists trying out perspective with the landscape/environment, but not really mailing it with the people, because the people were important and wanted to be seen more fully. It is (title and link will be added when I can remember the title!) I can’t find the painting in thinking of, but thus one does just as good a job, of not better. It’s by an anonymous painter. You can see how on the left, they *attempt* perspective, with people and buildings, but on the right, all perspective is thrown out the window, the building is straight on, etc. And that is because the most important people were on the right side, so the painter kept them big. (https://springsemester2015artz363.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/william-of-tyres-histoire-doutremer.jpg)
King Tut’s dad (Akhenaten) actually changed egyptian art a ton for his reign. He and his wife (Nefertiti) are depicted more realistically- they are chubby, they have unique, more realistic and unflattering facial features, etc. They are also not positioned in the way earlier ( and later) egyptians would be: showing the most recognizable part of the body (which is why the eye is facing forward, the have to the side, the torso forward, etc.) But Akhenaten did this because he created a new religion and God, and when he lost power, the religion and new, more realistic at movement died with it. (See ‘Akhenaten and his Family’ creative commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Akhenaten%2C_Nefertiti_and_their_children.jpg )
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