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

One factor that may have played a part is that artists imitated each other or imitated the art that they saw. If all you ever saw were artworks in which human figures were depicted in a stylized or iconic manner, you might well reproduce that style — particularly if the art was made for religious purposes — rather than experimenting to try to achieve more ‘realistic’ results. This isn’t the whole story by any means, but I bet it played a part.