Why are humans depicted in paintings from ancient civilizations like different than now? Weren’t there artists who could paint realistic paintings?

Question

Weren’t there artists at that time who could draw humans for what they actually looked like. For instance, look at the paintings of kings from the 17th Century or before.

In: Other

Answer 1

I think it really just depends on the cultural context. Nothing fundamentally changed about human abilities (although as someone mentioned things like mirrors and the camera obscura during the renaissance did help). For an example, search for “Fayum Portraits” from Ptolemaic Egypt about 2000 years ago. Many of them are nearly photorealistic.