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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In addition to the comments about access earlier people didn’t care to be hyper realistic as a style generally. They could, and some people did, but art was expensive to make and usually has layers of representation that was known to not be realistic but meaningful. The Church, as a major contributer, was looking for very specific styles for religious imagery as well.
You can see it in modern art as well with many art styles being abstract to various degrees, anime and manga-type drawings, and other styles that are not photorealism but are used for specific purposes. Very few people would not understand the hyper stylized facial expressions of Manga or anime and they exist because of that cultural knowledge, or can be put in places they normally might not to convey something else. The same was true of older art, but we lack most, if not all, of the cultural clues for them on anything but an academic level
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