I'm curious why fresco cave paintings from Peru in the 4th century and other works of art from the same period are more realistic and colorful while medieval art seems flat, lazy, without perspective or scale. Did we lose that creative knowledge for a few centuries?
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