ARTS AND LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The middle ages began around 500 AD and went until about 1500 AD in

western Europe. Lords ruled the lands at the time, along with the peasants.

ARCHITECTURE

The most famous buildings in the middle ages were the many castles and cathedrals.

They were all mainly constructed out of stone, unlike many buildings from early that were made from wood.

The stone buildings were les likely to rot and be destroyed by fire.

SCULPTURES

Stone, wood, and ivory were used to decorate furniture/doors in homes, statues, churches by the sculptors.

To make a sculpture the carver first had to remove a large piece of stone/wood/ivory using an ax so that there would be a rough outline of the shape needed. Chisels were used to carve out the smaller pieces. The sculptures are polished, painted, and decorated with thin sheets of gold.

PAINTING AND MOSAICS

Medieval did paintings in books and on church walls.

For most of the middle ages realistic style was not used.

To show that saints and rulers were higher up then others they would be drawn much larger.

Often painted on backgrounds of gold/colorful patterns rather then just natural settings.

POTTERY, METALWORK, AND WEAVING

The medieval craftspeople were very skilled when it came to working with metal, jewels, cloth, and clay. Bowls, pots, and jugs were

made from the clay.

BEAUTIFUL BOOKS

Books were hand copied for most of the middle ages by scribes. Manuscripts took the longest to

make and the materials that were needed to make books, were very expensive. The only people that really had books were nobles,

churches, and wealthy merchants.

LITERATURE

Most of the medieval books were written in Latin.

Latin was the language most commonly used by the church and educated people.

The books were about poetry, myths, history, science, philosophy, and religion.

MUSIC Music:the two main types of

music are- ~religious(played and sung during worship) and

~non-religious(singing and dancing for entertainment)

Instruments:Peasants played homemade pipes and drums. They were made from reeds, bones, animal horns, wood, and animal skins.

Dancing:Medieval people danced at social gatherings and danced inside and outside. It was seen as inappropriate to dance in churches or church yards. You would dance in a circle and the musicians would play tunes on there pipes and drums

MYSTERY PLAYS

A series of short plays that were preformed in towns on the holy days. Each of the plays told

a bible story or taught some sort of a Christian lesson.