Abstract This study characterizes the role of philosophy, religion, and scientific and technological progress as determining factors of conceptual changes in the art representation of discrepancies between “the true” and “the visible” in European culture from ancient to modern times. The application of structural and comparative methods of analysis makes it possible to define the art peculiarities of the display of symbolic contradictions between “the true” and “the visible”, which correlates with binary antinomy “top” – “bottom” and corresponds to the worldview orientations inherent in different eras. It is revealed that the loss of the meaning of Christianity, the intensification of scientific and technical progress, and the changes in philosophical vectors of European society brought about a reconsideration of the value system. Postmodernism with its philosophy and leveling of Christian ideas, development of digital technology, and the culture of Internet communication ХХ-ХХІ centuries destroys the possibility of differences between the concepts of “the true” and “the visible”. The concept of the dissonance between essential and formally receptive practically loses its meaning and the corresponding problem is deprived of its acuteness as the illusion (“the visible”) turns into a norm, synonymous with reality. “The true” is no longer necessary. Keywords: binary antinomy, culture, philosophy, religion, scientific progress.