Where did the talent go?

The ones on the right are more abstract and stylistic, anyone can make generic photorealistic reproductions like the ones on the left.

You're actually wrong, badly so.
You're mistaking what is clear crude symbolic understanding of the visual world for conscious effort to violate realism.
Not only that but attaining life like realism is very difficult, there is far more to realism than simply complying reality 1 to 1 which is already in and of itself very difficult.

They are much less characteristic though. Abstraction is only good if it makes a portrait recognizable.

they're not even art

>All the busts on the right were made after the crisis of the third century when the roman economy pretty much collapsed and never recovered
Really gets those neurons firing as to how the collapse of the empire syncs up with its christianisation.
Clearly it has to be a coincidence, right galileans?

>the quality of everything made before and after this period really shows
Oh, I agree.
I think the choice of state religion shows that quite well.

>the roman empire instantly collapsed in the 3rd century
Rome had been plauged with civil war for fucking centuries dude, if America just stopped being a state today would you argue that it died in 1878?

Remember that there is a timeline where someone killed Jews before they ruined everything and right now we're colonizing other galaxies.

>Really gets those neurons firing as to how the collapse of the empire syncs up with its christianisation.
I'm sure that collapse had nothing to do with 30 different emperors ruling the state in a 50 year span, various succession crises, Nero's alienation of the Senate and military commanders, Roman military/Praetorian guard taking part in various assassinations just because they didn't get paid bonuses, the rise of the Sassanids in the East, the expanding corruption in Rome and lack of meritocracy (Something Roman Emperors did try to do before your buddy Marcus Aurelius in the pic decided to make his son the heir rather than adopt someone he deemed competent, like some did before him). Not to mention the various defections from the Empire (Gallic empire). Nah it was just those Christians. Let's also ignore that the Great Persecution in fact happened.
Not to mention most emperors before Constantine didn't bother building an actual, proper reserve for the Roman army, I don't remember exactly but you can find more detail about it on "Age of Constantine and Julian" in the chapter about Constantine's reforms

Cristianity was a tiny 10% minority during Constantine ascension, and started to become really popular only after that.

Third century crisis have completeley different reasons, mostly economic and logistic (like too many borders to defend, and not enough slaves to substain the old economic order)

Not to mention the literal Legion frontier clusters that were deployed to defend the borders of Rome started becoming suspicious of one another. I believe only Vespasian managed to convince the Danube Legion frontier to help him out, I doubt he would've become emperor without them, although he technically did could've starved Rome to death.

>(Something Roman Emperors did try to do before your buddy Marcus Aurelius in the pic decided to make his son the heir rather than adopt someone he deemed competent, like some did before him)

Big problem is that if he adopted someone, the first order of business for the new Emperor would be to murder Commodus. You'd e dooming your own son to death. Presumably, he was to have him as Co-ruler, until he died, and would train/teach Commodus how to rule.

Yeah, what happened?

>Presumably, he was to have him as Co-ruler, until he died
Sounds like something Aurelius did with Lucius Verus. Also yeah didn't really think about Commodus having to be killed, shame his son pretty much turned a reign of gold to a reign of rust.

>Retarded bait is present on literally every board
Time to leave this place

really, they couldn't afford a proper material for the one thing their face would ever be recognized by?

remembered*

But the statue of Julian was made well after the reign of Constantine. It was a stylistic choice, it had nothing to do with quality.

how's middle school?

...

The son of the last emperor would be an instant threat, even if the son had no intentions to rule. He could be kidnapped, and forced to be a figurehead of some general. Commodus would have to die, or be emperor. Only two options.

Marcus was likely trying the most humane situation of having his son as co-ruler, and training him. Unfortunately he died before he was able to shape Commodus. And Commodus was raised not by him but by the palace, and had become a narsititic manchild.

>Where did the talent go?
If it didn't die in the plague, it died from starvation or had to give up making sculpture because there wasn't enough work to justify the trade and they had to move out into the countryside to grow crops just to keep food in their stomachs