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.
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Because it depends on what the painter is trying to do. Realism may not be the aim – it may be more about projecting an ideal type (typically of monarchy or nobility) or conveying a set of ideas about society and the place of the subject in it – for example the king as a blend of Solomon and Joshua. So what we see as distortions carry meanings according to widely-held archetypes. Often these are lost, but sometimes we can reconstruct the underlying patterns.
Even where realism can be done, it may not be – Romans were realistic in their ancestral portrait-busts, but imperial imagery is more stereotyped.
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