Why didn't medieval artists have any drawing skills?

It's hard to draw stuff one has never seen in real life.

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>>2502995
Same reason Japanese couldn't.

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>>2503014

Like humans?

>>2502995
The plauge inspired realism in art.
http://www.montana.edu/historybug/yersiniaessays/medrano.html

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They could draw. They just thought it was more important for a work of art to convey symbolic meaning than literal representation.

For some reason when people say "Why is Medieval art so bad?" they post pictures of what are effectively doodles by monks found on illuminated manuscripts. You didn't have a lot of space to draw and you had limited materials to work with so it was much more efficient to draw something stylised and simple.

Look at some medieval work by actual professional artists. I don't think anyone would suggest that Duccio, for instance, "had no drawing skills".

>>2503220

This. Their art was bad on purpose.

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>medieval art is bad
When will this meme go away

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>>2502995
Like what has been said already, much of the "bad" medieval art was done by amateurs. That being said, Medieval art is aesthetic af, and the focus on symbolism over realism makes it pretty interesting.

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>>2503307
this

>>2503220
>I don't think anyone would suggest that Duccio, for instance, "had no drawing skills".
His figures were decent but that's it. Most of his paintings are ugly. And they're awful compared to the Renaissance painters.

The real reason medieval artists couldn't draw was because they didn't know anything about perspective due to limited access to classical sources.

>>2502995
Because most drawings are little illustrations meant to accompany books, not works of art.