Why did ancient statues and idols tend to have very large eyes?

Answer 1

It depends on which statues and idols to which you refer. Many ancient portrait statues of the Classical world used large and small glass balls made of colored enamel for the eyes to add expression and emotion. Often these glass eyes would be white and painted to look uniquely human, but sometimes other materials such as marble, black stones, and even jewels were used to convey a different message.

In other ancient cultures such as Sumer, large eyes symbolized a close connection with deities. This also resembles the distortion and elongation of human figures in medieval European paintings, where the vertical stretching of limbs and eyes reflected a longing to be closer to Heaven.