You know the paintings I'm talking about. The ones that are often used for memes and look like something only insanity could come up with. What're the running theories for these paintings? Old timey hallucinations? Literal fever dreams? Extreme metaphors?? I'd love to understand them a little more.
We get questions like this fairly often so there are a bunch of previous answers that might be helpful:
Why do animals in Medieval manuscripts look so crazy? Did the painters not know what they looked like? Was it intentional? Did they have a hard time drawing? by u/CoeurdeLionne and u/sunagainstgold
Why did it take so long for artists to get to grips with perspective? by u/kastdenvaek
Why do professional paintings look photo-realistic in 1700s England yet look so awful 100-150 years earlier? by u/pipkin42
Why did pre-renaissance christian art degrade so much compared to the classical period? by u/Guckfuchs
And plenty more in the FAQ about visual arts