Why was ancient """"art""""

They hadn't come across the mathematical principles behind making a 2D medium appear 3D. They were just eyeballing it.

But give them credit, nobody figured it out anywhere in the world until like 14th century Italy.

>>2926004

Desu even the shitty medieval paintings from ~1100 (before the renaissance etc) look better than this.

>>2926039
I was under the belief that most ancient paintings were totally lost, with only a handful of frescos preserved so it's difficult to judge the 'skill' of the ancient masters since we don't really have many examples of their work.

>>2926053

Not him but it's always puzzled me how the Greeks and romans could be so god tier with architecture and sculpture and fail this hard with painting. Even their vases etc look awful.

>>2926060
It's easier to represent three dimensions when you're working in three dimensions, with a building or sculpture.

File: 48cb80fbd1d19229f24edba3b5a3ff06.jpg (327KB, 1159x870px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2926060
i like their pottery though

File: The_Mummy_of_Demetrios,_95-100_C.E.,11.600.jpg (346KB, 995x1536px) Image search: [Google]

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I dunno, I like some of these.

File: Arezzo_medallion.jpg (177KB, 686x736px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2926107
This one gets bonus points for being gold glass.

>>2926060

we only have what survives, it's likely that they could have had fantastic paintings made on paper but they've rotted away since then

File: Eusebius_medallion_1.jpg (132KB, 492x511px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2926116
wew these are eerie as fuck

File: Homme_avec_barbe,_portrait_funéraire,_Fayoum,_Égypte.jpg (157KB, 578x1023px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2926107
I think Egyptians were just better at portraits in general.

>>2926126
Right? Lithophanes are pretty neat too:
http://www.lithophane.org.uk/japanese/japanese.html

>>2926134

Now compare that to something from the renaissance and beyond

File: aaftncb0[1].jpg (487KB, 1800x1296px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2926060
Greek art was pretty cool.
Like this
>>2926102