Why do very old arts (paintings, sculptures) look pretty inaccurate and abstract?
Upvote:2
You are expressing a very strange minority opinion. So the question is really not "why old art...", but "why do you think so...".
People who have seen ancient and pre-historic art are usually very much impressed and rate many things on the highest level. For example, Pablo Picasso, after he was shown the paintings in Altamira cave said: "We have invented nothing new"!
Does this really look "pretty bad and inaccurate" to you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cucutenimalefigure.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GanditorulDinTarpestiCucuteniCultura.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Brassempouy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UrukHead.jpg
http://artdiscovery.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_1499.jpg
https://www.donsmaps.com/images28/lionsendchamber.jpg
https://www.donsmaps.com/images26/chauvetbison.jpg
Then I think you have some minority view. At least I share the Picasso opinion: there is no such thing as "progress" in art, unlike in science and some other areas of human activity.
Upvote:3
Henri Matisse, the great French artist said "Exactitude is not truth".
An accurate and precise representation of something may not convey the meaning that the artist intended. For example the size of a human figure in ancient Egyptian pictures was meant to represent their importance in society, not their physical size. Anyone back then could 'read' the picture and know who were the big shots and who were the slaves. When a caveman drew an antelope on a wall he may have been trying to convey how fast they moved, to emphasise the parts that made the best eating, or the excitement of the hunt, rather than show the exact proportions and details of the beast. Art has always been about feelings, emotions and meaning, not precision.
The Venus of Willendorf is not meant to protray a particular woman, it is probably a symbol of fecundity. To give it a face would give it a specific identity as an individual, but it is meant to stand as a symbol of fertility in general. It ws deliberately created to look like it does for very good reasons.
We all, now, look at all art through twenty first century eyes. We can't see them in the same way their makers or their intended audience saw them, to them. When we look at a painting by Titian in the 15th century, we miss the references and allusions that were obvious to people in Venice back then, in the same way that people in a hundred years won't be aware of some of the things we take for granted now.
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