[Wuli]

Could it be a difference, and missing a trained ability to distiguish how to sqaure the difference, between carving something in three dimensions and making a three dimensional representation in two dimensions - sometimes referred to as being able to draw “perspective” in art. Sculpting and drawing can require different artistic skills not always combined within the same craftsman. Just a guess - regarding the very “flatish” Egytian painted figures of people amid the same society that seemed to have very accurate, sometimes exquisite, life like three dimensional sculptures of the human form. One other explanation would be the painted flat human figures and the very life like three dimensional human sculptures were crafted by peoples of very different time periods.

[Flag_This]

"Could it be a difference, and missing a trained ability to distiguish how to sqaure the difference, between carving something in three dimensions and making a three dimensional representation in two dimensions - sometimes referred to as being able to draw “perspective” in art."

I just don't know if "realism" was what the Egyptians were trying to achieve in their surviving paintings, or if they had other goals in mind. A lot of the paintings I have seen were from tombs and temples and I suspect they were for religious/ceremonial purposes - they weren't trying to make something look real for aesthetic reasons, they were fulfilling a specific purpose. But I'm just guessing.

[reformedliberal]

One other explanation would be the painted flat human figures and the very life like three dimensional human sculptures were crafted by peoples of very different time periods.
________________________

Perhaps there were *conventions* for 2D vs 3D representation. Something like the conventions of iconography in a culture known to be capable of representational and perspective work.

Some ancient icons combine a background in perspective with a stylized human figure.