Realism emerged in Renaissance Europe
from the discovery of the Graeco-Roman;
The Eastern Byzantine kingdom adopting
the flat idealism of Egyptian Hieroglyph.

Depicting the full range of history &
myth in photographic detail Western
civilization's scientific perspective
allowed their vision to differ from the
Eastern kingdom; telescope, camera,
video, television, microscope all had
a profound impact in several way; 1
way is the information derived from
the new technology; & perhaps more
interesting is the technology used to
create the new optical technology, like
the art of crafting musical instruments,
the art of playing & music composing.

Ironically the East saw a Renaissance
of  its own in literature & music; that
in the West culminate in Shakespeare,
Mozart & Beethoven; while the East's
specialty is for open-air mass spectacles.

The West visual technology from
daguerreotype to IMAX to VR is
an abandonment of the traditional
arts of hand-made visual objects.