Why are modern artists able to draw hyper-realistic art using just a pen/pencil, but artists from 100+ years ago weren’t able to?

Question

Edit: In regards to what I mean by hyper-realistic, I’m referring to artwork seen here: Pics

these are almost photograph quality.

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Answer 1

Take a look at some of the early anatomical sketches by DaVinci or some of the still life flowers of the 1600s (just don’t look at the cat).