Agricultural practice served Darwin as the material basis for the elaboration of his theory of Evolution which explained the natural causation of the adaptation we see in the structure of the organic world. That was a great advance in the knowledge of living nature.
A discerning eye needs only a hint and understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations.
After about the first Millennium Italy was the cradle of Romanesque architecture which spread throughout Europe much of it extending the structural daring with minimal visual elaboration.
People have always wanted to be recognized and that's human nature. But people used to want to be recognized for their accomplishments and now they simply want to be visible.