I'm out of my depth in discussions about art history, but comparing the 18th century illustrations to the 15th century painting in the same article, I find it h

I'm out of my depth in discussions about art history, but comparing the 18th century illustrations to the 15th century painting in the same article, I find it hard to infer a notion of progress as you do. Having said that, one could well imagine that the 18th century illustrator was deliberately attempting to evoke a medieval style. Here are some links picked up from quick Google searches that might provide stylistic comparisons: 18th century - http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/09/charlie-charlie-are-you-there/ http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/09/charlie-charli... 14th century - http://io9.com/bizarre-and-vulgar-illustrations-from-illuminated-medie-1456202572 http://io9.com/bizarre-and-vulgar-illustrations-from-illumin...