Artists might seem like they were a more special, talented breed in the past.

Keep in mind that we only know about the talented ones from back in the day. A crappy painter won't have a legacy that lasts. Rest assured that there were plenty of mediocre artists wherever there were artists. It's like foreign films. Unless they are Japanese, most of the terrible ones don't reach out TVs and movie stores. So people think foriegn films are all just better then the alternative.

Anyway, people like to think we are lots different then people in the past instead of the same people just with some different cultural bias/technology to work with. I don't know why they like to think that.