Why didn't people in the middle ages understand perspective?

>>3274214
Christianity

Considering they were all doing it I always assume it was a stylistic choice.

People back then were borderline retarded and largely illiterate.

>>3274225
>borderline retarded
Nice meme

Why don`t you draw better then some monks who did nothing but read bibles, pray, and bang whores .

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The introduction of Celtic and Germanic art in the West, and ascetic-mystic art in the Middle East and Byzantium.

>>3274219
*dibs*

barely anyone understood perspective until the Renaissance

and even then it was as a alternate way of architecture they didn't know how to build

>>3274214

Because more often than not, medieval art survives only as book illustrations. Often multiple events are shown in the same picture/page like a comic book. For example, this one shows the king of France in blue, arriving at the tower of London by boat, signing papers inside the Tower, speaking outside and then leaving on horseback, all at once. It's hard to do this, while maintaining perspective.

Remember also, that these illustrations are tiny, being maybe most of an a5 page, at best, with most much, much smaller. There isn't enough room for photorealistic perspective with the space and materials available.

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>>3274504

Actually adding the picture may be helpful...

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>>3274506

This example is particularly interesting, as it's a fairly decent picture of the Tower and the city of London, with London Bridge, St. Pauls and Westminster visible in the background. They even added details like water flowing in a realistic manner under the bridge and waves on the Thames. However, all of that should be off to the left further up the river, not immediately behind the Tower. But the perspective/geography of the piece doesn't matter, because those things make it clear that this is supposed to be London.

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>>3274219
?

>>3274214
There's literally perspective in the painting you posted.

File: Pompei_-_House_of_Julia_Felix_-_2_-_MAN.jpg (4MB, 2550x3510px) Image search: [Google]

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>>3274214
Nobody understood it until Brunelleschi.

>>3274214
Height is symbolic


If a guy was depicted as tall it is because he was more important

Mesopotamians did the same