I’m asking because paintings, whether on the wall of a cave, or on generally of a King or Queen in ancient times look quite weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, it has its own cool art style, but they are not realistic or anywhere close.
If human beings have a natural talent, photographic memory or incredible artistic ability today where they can make TikToks of painting ultra realistic art with fire, chalk or charcoal etc Why do we almost never see realism in painting/artistic history? I’m talking paintings specifically not sculptures btw
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Greek and Roman painting was relatively “ultra realistic” it was just done on materials that didn’t survive.
There are a few exceptions: tomb murals from Etruria and Macedonia, murals from Pompeii, and the Fayum portraits.
There were paintings from individual artists that we know existed for centuries, because they were constantly referenced, and were very famous across the Greco-Roman period, but virtually all of them were lost during the seismic cultural and political changes of Late Antiquity. The famous Alexander the Great mosaic is a copy of an ancient painting for example – the original long gone. Less realistic stylistic changes, especially in the late Roman Empire, were also intentional, just like they are today.
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