When we look at images and styles of art that have been preserved from history, we see the styles change but generally not the artwork of a particular individual who initially brought forth the new style. To some degree, I suspect this is because prior to inventions such as the printing press, it is extremely unlikely there was a concept of fame. Ergo, there was much less impetus for noticing the genesis of one particular style.
Nowadays, of course, there is significant attention paid to visual styles, in part so proper attribution can be assigned when a situation requests it. Indeed, the very concept of not knowing who first rendered an image in a particular way seems foreign to us. However the attention we pay to such things isn’t necessarily the same as in the distant past. Aspects of geology from hundreds or thousands of years ago are much easier to predict, and those properties alone suggest that even the air people breathed long ago was substantially different than the air we breathe now. Moreover, throughout history in the west, some institution (such as the state, the church, the local community, the family, etc etc) has generally or always been present to assert authority. When obedience is prized, there has historically been little room for celebrity (whereas now, folks have managed to merge the two).
In any case, across centuries, visual styles have changed, however slowly and subtly. It’s interesting to see because the visual style typically reflects the mores of the population. That is doubly interesting when you note that the majority of artwork preserved since ….ever — at least since the death of Christ explicitly depicts Christ. In fact, apart from a few works by Leonardo da Vinci, I’m not sure I can even name any non-Jesus works from, say, before the fifteenth century.🤔
My own theory is that there really was a Jesus (whatever his name was). And he essentially taught that all humans are divine. So the Roman Empire perverted the message and elevated and isolated Jesus, making him unique and magical, thus essentially rendering his message completely different from the original. Do I have evidence? No. I am simply very skeptical of anything people are able to transmit through generations. Have you ever played that game “telephone” (I’ve also heard it called “Whispers in the Dark,” which is a far better name) — when I was a kid, we sat in a circle. One kid whispered to another, then that person whispered the same thing to the next kid on his/her other side. Upon hearing it, the last kid would say the message aloud. The first kid would say whether that was the same as the initial phrase. It pretty much never was in my experience. And yet, I’m expected to believe religious texts remain intact across millennia, councils, crusades, schisms, and etc??? Riiiiiight.