I am thinking about how Art works in the Burning Wheel. This is coming up in my own mind since I am about to start a game set at the beginning of the Renaissance (although in a Birthright inspired world, so not, realistic or anything).
Looking at art on the wheel you get some very distinct situations.
Elves, obviously make amazing art. The Song of Form, Starcraft, Archcraft, and their ageless nature makes them able to patient, spending years to perfect a single work. Their artists create citadels sung from the stone, their artists form sculptures of breath taking beauty. Adding their great Will and their years, Elven Artists are wonderful. Adding in that much of it will be magical, sculptures which tell tales of distant lands, sculptures which merge with the trees and let the elven citadels know the health of their forests.
The Dwarves do very little that isn’t functional. Only White Metal Artifice and Gem Artifice have non-useful functions, although Hallmaster will likely be used to create wonderful works of art. Dwarven artists aren’t likely creating paintings and sculpture (and if they are, this is simply a normal non-magical thing), they are building axes and armour, things they are can use. Likely they have wonderful art, but it’s not going to hang in a gallery like human and elven art.
Humans seem to do very regular art, the kind of art that we in the real world do. However, there is the fact of the Greater Muse trait. A non-trivial portion of Painters within humanity are creating art worthy of the title heroic. Sculptures made as well as Excalibur, things which would cause a Dwarf to drool.
Orcs of course Hate all Art.
As it stands, the Elves may have magical skills which allow them to make great art, but Humans make Heroic art which can be only matched by the oldest and most powerful Elves, the elves most likely consumed by Grief. Humans burn more brightly, for less time.
Similarly, Elves have their homes, the great places of beauty where they live to remember that their homes are in a world they watch decay. But, by making their homelands so full of beauty and things of magic and purity, they ignite the fires of greed in the hearts of Dwarves. Likely, the beauty the Elves create to limit their Grief causes the Dwarves to go mad (and of course, destroy or steal such treasures, which of course increases the Grief of the Elves,leading to the deep racial enmity).