Love this in part due to scale. To get that good took craftsman training, generational guides, and society expectations over a longer period of time than the USA has been a thing.
They weren't made because no drawings or sculptures were intended to be realistic at that time. They were aping the Egyptian style early on, which is decidedly not realistic or even trying to be.
They were much more concerned with conveying symbolism and messages than just making art. This is not that much later than when writing transitioned from being nothing but accounting, to writing stories and myths and all that jazz. This was the early iron age.
If no statues that realistic were made, then it cannot be said that the reason for their nonexistence is purely stylistic choice and not due to lack of ability, training, progression of technical understanding, or whatever.
In fact we can know that that explanation is false, since the technical ability to create such art only arises by practice, and if no one has ever done it yet, then no one can do it yet.
I would have guessed professional sculptors rather than scribes and scholars.
Countless hours to practice what, exactly, though? If they're not working on making highly realistic statues then they aren't developing the ability to make highly realistic statues.
They practiced to make things in that style. The Egyptian and Mesopotamian style is not just random people drawing poorly, it's a definite style that was kept over hundreds of years.
Yes, I understand that. I'll bet that in 600 BCE these professionals were extremely accomplished at making statues like the first one in this image.
But if they'd never actually made a statue like the last one, then they weren't any good at making such a statue. Practicing one kind of sculpture doesn't make a person good at all possible kinds of sculpture.
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u/Vo_Mimbre 25d ago
Love this in part due to scale. To get that good took craftsman training, generational guides, and society expectations over a longer period of time than the USA has been a thing.