Note: This was recently removed from ELI5 (I believe incorrectly), on the grounds that I am looking for subjective responses. I'm not. I'm trying to find the answer to this question from experts in the field.

When I look at medieval art for example, often the paintings look almost child like, as though there was a dearth of truly talented people back then. I grant that the impressionists for example had a lot more tools to work with, by virtue of technological advancement. Surely though there would have been individuals that could paint a scene as they saw it, much like some of the talented artists we all know or went to school with.

Is this gradual improvement a consequence of the slow emergence of new techniques?

To take an extreme example, Egyptian tomb decorations and even ancient cave paintings seem to be simple animals and gods in profile view. Was the idea of realistic painting of say a landscape just not part of the human psyche back then?

Hope I’m making sense, perhaps some art history majors could provide the answer?