Why couldn't anyone draw realistically thousands of years ago?

Question

It always seemed to me that before a few milleniums ago, people could not seem to draw realistically. The proportions and placement of body parts were all wrong. For example, the Egyptians drew ears much too high on the head.

Answer 1

Lots of reasons.

1.) They were trying to convey information, and accuracy of things like ear placement weren't too important. It's a lot easier to draw a person in profile and arms akimbo, so that's how they drew them. They wanted to convey the message, not accurately reflect the view.

2.) They did not "study" art as we do. They didn't have time. They were too busy working on farms.

3.) Look at the Greeks. Their art work was hardly representatve of humans. It was beautiful, but no one really looks like that!!! Especially in the days before plastic surgery!

4.) Take, for example, how we Americans drink tea. If a medieval Japanese woman were to watch us, she would probably either laugh or cry to see how unartful our pragmatic downing of a cup of tea is.

Answer 2

Well, Greek sculptures were as realistic as you can get. The only reason why they do it is because they believe NATURAL human body is the most perfect and most beautiful form.

Other ancient cultures, on the other hand, believe otherwise. For example, ancient Egyptians believe high forehead is beautiful, so they draw people with unrealistically high foreheads.

Even when Western art reached to that "realistic" phase, people still draw others the way they see as beautiful. For example, look up impressionist paintings and you will notice all women have extreme hourglass waist (they wear corsets, but they can't possibly all have small waist like that.)
Or look at Rococo paintings, all women have extremely fair skin and most of them are "overweight". These paintings may look real, but they are still distorted.

In addition, oil painting was invented during the late middle ages, and using oil paint, artists were able to create more depth and shadows more efficiently.

Also, art may serve another purpost in ancient times. They may not be pure decreative. Some culture have yet to invent text, so it is used to record events. Realisticness wouldn't be that important.

Answer 3

Partly, it was because certain techniques hadn't been discovered yet. However, more importantly, drawing realistically was not always the goal. To stick with your example, the Egyptians weren't trying to get perspective "right". To them, accurately representing social status and the relations between people was much more important. So Pharao and important officials were drawn very big, whereas slaves and peasant were drawn small, even if standing right next to each other.

Answer 4

They also drew bodies facing forward with the head in profile. I have never understood that, except that art and design were distant concepts, and Da Vinci was not yet around to study the human form. So, I am guessing that religious beliefs were monumental to expression in any medium employed by the ancients, but how remains to be seen in large part.

Answer 5

They hadn't developed the art strongly enough. The only reason we can draw realistically now is because have so much precedent from various great artists. If you look at art, it slowly got more and more realistic and exact... that is, until modernism.

Answer 6

You'll notice that cave artists drew ANIMALS perfectly, but PEOPLE as stick figures. In general, people draw people unrealistically on purpose, presumably some thought of magic was involved.

Answer 7

What they said, plus:

Why don't you take a stick, burn it until it is charred, and draw a realistic picture using only that and a rock.

Answer 8

it could be that they didnt have the quality of tools that we have.. they didnt have the paints, canvasses, and brushes that we have today

or maybe they did, but the art just didnt survive and all we see is the art they did on rocks and with rocks