[jyl]

I left out artists. Monet was at the vanguard of a movement. If a reincarnated Monet were producing the same Impressionist canvases today, likely he'd have only modest success. Could he create and popularize a new, different movement? Or was he a painter whose eye was right for that specific period only? Ditto Picasso, Michelangelo, Carvaggio, Rodin?

I really have no idea what the answer is.

It seems maybe there are certain fields of endeavour where being "new" and "fresh" is very important.

Fine art in the 19th and 20th centuries has been that way. Being fantasically talented alone doesn't do it, you have to create a new movement to be a "great". Science is totally that way, the game changes every decade. Physics today involves a tremendous amount of abstruse mathematics, there are probably more talented research physicists working at this moment than existed throughout the entirety of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and the level of competition is orders higher than when Newton was alive.

There are other fields where the game doesn't really change, at least at certain positions on a team. Quarterbacks today don't have to run faster or throw farther than in the 1980s, so I think Joe Montana would be a star quarterback today, and if you agree then its not a stretch to say the Johnny Unitas of 1958 would too. Baseballs and bats haven't changed either, since the Babe's time - is there a reason why his eye and hand speed wouldn't be as effective today as in the 1920s? Possibly performance arts like ballet, where (I think? - not having vashian levels of ballet knowledge) the classic moves and aesthetic standards are somewhat constant.

Some sports are so diminished today that I don't think they can produce a "great" player. Take boxing. Can you imagine a boxer, even one with the speed and grace of the young Ali, becoming truly famous, with the state of the sport what it is? Of course Ali's greatness has all kinds of social dimensions too, but use Frazier or Marciano as examples.

And some greatness is bestowed due to death. Jim Clark is a legendary figure, arguably more so that Jackie Stewart. Is that because Clark died and Stewart lived?