# Could artists in the past not have drawn more realistic portraits?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615 "2012-10-23T14:14:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615/61 "2012-10-25T03:57:39Z")

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> [@Hail\_Ants](#):
>
> Plus they’re approaching from what can only be outside of your known reality.

You’re saying that island-dwelling people weren’t used to seeing their friends in boats approaching from far off?

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615/62 "2012-10-25T05:36:39Z")

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> [@Hail\_Ants](#):
>
> Same for a pyramid, a big, neat pile of stones is still just a big, neat pile of stones.

If you get to do this, I get to say a ship is just wood and cloth in a neat ‘pile’, and we know pre-Columbian Mesoamericans had wood and cloth. Besides, nobody ever talks about how farmers who’d never seen anything like a ship in their lives couldn’t see Viking longboats.

How about this: Could the first Europeans to make it to what’s now Arizona see the Grand Canyon?

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615/63 "2012-10-25T05:48:53Z")

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> [@Xema](#):
>
> You’re saying that island-dwelling people weren’t used to seeing their friends in boats approaching from far off?

They never saw boats the size of Columbus’, ships as big as multiple-story buildings with masts as tall as trees and acres of sails. Movable objects that seemed to be both very far away and therefore impossibly large.

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**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-artists-in-the-past-not-have-drawn-more-realistic-portraits/638615/64 "2012-10-25T06:30:53Z")

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The origin of this myth seems to be from Captains cooks diaries were he contrasted having canoes row out to meet his ships in New Zealand and then that the Australian aboriginal paid no attention to the arrival of his ships until smaller boats were launched. The claim is that they couldn’t understand what the ships were so ignored them, not that they actually couldn’t seem them.

[http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/science/20/questioning\_perceptual\_blindness.html](http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/science/20/questioning_perceptual_blindness.html)

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