Why do we rarely see ultra-realistic paintings from ancient/medieval times, given the fact that many humans have a natural talent of creating them today with minimal items?

Question

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

In: Other

Answer 1

Part of it is because that wasn’t “the style at the time”. Someone hundreds of years ago could have painted something hyper-realistic, but those that could, who were making money off of their work, were painting things in a specific style for someone who requested that and was paying for that.

That and finding a willing model to sit still for long enough to make a hyper-realistic painting was tough.