Why did painting and sculpture decline in the middle ages?

Well I doubt the Romans had paintings that look like modern ones… But as for sculptures what you see in the Italian Renaissance is a return to classical styles i.e. nude stern looking hero with abs. read more

Relief panels were often made to decorate altars, to serve as book covers, or in the form of a diptych. 1 (A diptych, which is simply two panels hinged together, is a traditional European method of presenting two complementary scenes of painting or relief sculpture. read more

Thus, the period between the Romans and this idealization in the early modern era became called the medium aevum—the"ages in the middle," or the Middle Ages. They became traditionally characterized as a backward step, where art became"primitive" (because only realistic art could be"good" art), architecture was"barbaric" or"gothic," and innovation was stagnant. read more