content: The fall of the Roman empire set art back no less than 1500 years - the amount of time it took to go from late Greek/Roman to early Byzantine to Neoclassical.  The fall of the Roman Empire and the floundering of the culture that provided the region with vast growth caused the area to be split into Early Christian, Early Byzantine, and Early Islam.  All three focused on the getting rid of realistic art as it glorified man. In Early Christian and Early Byzantine, this took the form of flat images, floating people (ethereal, dontcha know), gold backgrounds, and "in your face" symbols of holy stature such as halos and wings. Early Islamic art went further: no depiction of man or animals as it glorified the physical world over God/Allah. (Incidentally, this is why muslims are not allowed to make snowmen). Pretty much all that was left was writing. So they turned writing into an incredible art form, eventually including geometrical shapes as seen on the ceiling of any muslim temple. Eventually, most people got a bit of fucking common sense about them and went back to art forms like Pieta. Except for Muslims, that is. They are still following, to the letter, laws that were written before soap was invented.  Quite literally, humanity regressed 1500 years because of religion in politics and muslims are still back in that time period because they refuse to take their heads out of their asses. Source: Art fucking history FTW, motherfuckers. It's not completely fucking useless. Hell, double major in art history and chemistry and you could be one of those faggots that get to restore paintings like the Mona Lisa.