Why did it take until the renaissance for cultures to make realistic drawings/paintings? Off all the cultures i can think of, none of them before the renaissance have realistic looking paintings. And its not like previous cultures couldnt make impressive art, greek and roman sculptures are very detailed and realistic, why isnt that reflected in their paintings?
We get this question fairly often! u/CoeurdeLionne and u/sunagainstgold answered a similar question a few months ago about paintings of animals:
There are also some good discussions about paintings of humans and other similar topics in the FAQ:
Why did it take so long for artists to get to grips with perspective?
Why did pre-renaissance christian art degrade so much compared to the classical period?