TIMELINE: The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages The Medieval period or Middle Ages, was named by Renaissance historians to account for the nearly 1000-year span between the fall of Rome and the creation of Medieval Europe.

The Church The new world power was the Roman Catholic Church, which restored order and developed a new code of law based on church doctrine and Roman Law. The arts were almost exclusively under the patronage of the church, resulting in the building of great cathedrals throughout Europe.

The Church Literature was preserved and taught by churchmen. The church assumed a unifying role in Europe, despite national borders and differences in national attitudes.

Society Forms of society during this period consisted of feudalism, monasticism, and national monarchies.

Monastic Groups Monastic groups, made up of people who valued their spiritualism, developed isolated communities where they would not be tempted by sin. Monks were responsible for scholarly research and establishing schools.

Feudalism In feudalism, the monarch and nobles were at the top, with the serfs and poor workers at the bottom. A person was born and died within this system with no hope of improving economically, educationally, or socially.

The Arts As commerce spread, cities in northern Europe gained prominence. The merchants and artisans became a separate social group which organized themselves in guilds. Guild: a medieval association of craftsman or merchants, often having considerable power

By the Guilds In cities like Paris, large Gothic cathedrals were built. Often this was the work of community efforts by the artisans. The merchants gained wealth and prestige and became the new patrons of the arts. Patronage: the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another.

Gothic Cathedrals A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space within a ceiling or roof. Vaults allow for larger and wider spaces to be built because of the support it gives the roof.

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The Gothic Cathedral: A landmark in engineering ll0 ll0

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By the Guilds The merchants brought changes in both society and government that were essential to developments during the Renaissance.

The beginnings of nationalism were also seen in this period. In 1215 the Magna Carta was signed, eventually leading to the development of a parliament. The crusades of Roman Catholics against Moslem rules of the Holy Land took place during the Middle Ages. Though the crusades were futile, they did led to new east-west trade routes to India and eventually to China.

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The Church Because of the Church’s influence, an emphasis on spirituality was found in all of the arts of the early Medieval period. This began during the declining centuries of Roman civilization.

The Church Influence A general and persistent artistic tendency was toward dematerialization and abstraction. In the Byzantine Period, the art reflected a decorative and abstract style depicting elongated images of saints and apostles.

The Church Major efforts were directed toward constructing cathedrals which included carved decorative sculpture and wall mosaics made with tesserae. Tesserae: cubes of opaque colored glass, that detailed religious themes.

The Church Gothic cathedrals contained beautiful stained glass windows depicting religious scenes adding the heightened feeling of spirituality

The Church As movable type was not yet invented, clergy or monks produced all manuscripts by hand and only the church, the king, or extremely wealthy nobles could afford the luxury of owning a manuscript. Miniature paintings decorated the pages of the manuscripts and often illuminated musical scores.

PROJECT TIME! On a sheet of white construction paper, you will use ONLY black crayons to create a drawing. 1. Draw a border around the entire paper that involves repeating a pattern. 2. Draw at least 3 figures broken up into simple shapes in different positions (doing different things). – Example: Like what we did when we learned about the element shape: Heads were squares, limbs were rectangles… remember?

PROJECT TIME! 3. Make sure that these figures are in a setting. Are they outside? Inside? Somewhere specific? 4. After drawing it all in black crayon, use watercolor paints to add the color. Take your time and make it look good! You WILL NOT finish this today. If you do.. It will look like doo doo! You may not even finish drawing it today!

Society Since the commoners, most women and some of the nobility, could not read art was used to inform and educate.