Thanks for all the pictures! My comment was probably too flippant, I didn't mean to say a realistic style of painting had no value after the invention of the p

Thanks for all the pictures! My comment was probably too flippant, I didn't mean to say a realistic style of painting had no value after the invention of the photography. I was just trying to explain why painting styles have changed, for better or worse. For example I love the hand drawn illustrations used in many advertisements and posters in most of the 20th century. They have artistic qualities photography cannot replace. But nevertheless, photography have gradually overtaken this domain and now totally dominates advertising. It is clearly what the market demands. The most prestigious genre in the academic style was the historical painting. My claim is the movie industry and perhaps now computer games are catering to this demand for immersive historical representation and myths. A realistic illustration style have survived for long in comic books and sf/fantasy book covers. Here realism is an important tool to make the fantastic feel real. But as the capabilities for CGI advances, Hollywood is taking over here: Today marvel movies outsells marvel comics many times. The market speaks clearly, for better or worse. To be clear, by realism I mean a style which strives for realism in anatomy, perspective, lighting and so on. Hokusai or Bekinski are not realist any more than say van Gogh. But Frazetta clearly is building on a realist style reminiscent of the historical painting, just with more monsters.