Part EIGHT = Shakespeare and other bits.

Shakespeare and other bits.

William Shakespeare was influenced by the art of the Renaissance and their way of story telling. The Globe Theatre started to performed plays to the masses, just as it was in Aristotle's time in the great Amphitheatres.

The theatres brought the classes together for the first time, as Royalty and peasants watched the same plays, whilst meant them both being affected by the same emotions being played out on the stage.

In 1712 came the steam engine with Britain being at the height of innovation. The engine became very important and the industrial revolution totally relied on steam to power it's many powerful machines.

Until this time, the UK had been importing a lot of goods from China but the UK had a good supply of coal to power the steam driven machines. Very soon the import and export ratio changed, as the UK began to export more products.

Steam may well not drive as much machinery as it did back then, but it is still used in the production of electricity, which now provides us with energy. Harnessing electricity for our use was first developed circa 1800 by Thomas Edison.


Following on from this came the oldest surviving photo in 1826, so there may well have been many more before this one. This picture was by French photographer Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; following after this and surprisingly not before, came the camera in 1840.
 
In 1833 came the first zoetrope, a tabletop invention that gave the impression of movement by spinning a series of static images, which were then viewed through slits.

Previous to these inventions, paintings took weeks to months to produce, to obtain the dark, light and perspective that a camera and a photograph could now give. Artists became afraid of this new contraption, the camera.

Communication started to grow and in the early 1800's, typewriters were invented, followed by Morse code and telegraphy. In 1870, telephone and mass communication started. Initially telephone lines were very local but very quickly international calls could soon be made. It totally changed how the world communicated but at the same time made the world a much smaller place.

The terms 'media' and 'press' that we take for granted today, first appeared at the end of the 18th century but it seems uncertain by whom it was was quoted.

Part SEVEN = The Renaissance

The Renaissance.

The Renaissance was between 1500 - 1800 AD.

It really started and then flourished in Florence, Italy, after which it spread to Venice, which is to the North East.

New wealthy families now paid for paintings, art, jewellery and architecture, which had previously be paid for by the church.

This was a total opposite, for in the previous 500 years, are had been mostly church based, being in bibles for example.

Artists became freelance and accepted commissions away from the church now and did other worth away from just reproducing Christian stories.

The Renaissance led to more realistic paintings, with more depth; light and shadow; three three dimensionality and correct proportions in face and hands of people in art etc.

Sculpture also improved in the way it looked, but still looked very 'Greek'. Look at Michelangelo's David as an example.

There was also a development in technology, with the invention of bow and arrows and gun powder. These in turn changed the the hierarchy of who was in charge.

With the distribution of wealth, came education for the masses, which in turn led to an exciting era of invention and in the creative arts.

Famous Renaissance men included:

Copernicus, who believed that the world was not flat.

Johannes Kepler, an astronomer who gave us the laws of planetary motion.
 
Galileo was a physicist, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, who is mostly remembered for his  studies of the stars, the earth and the planets. He was also locked up for his forward thinking beliefs, poor man.

Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity.

Leonardo da Vinci, who is famous for the Mona Lisa but also as a scientist. He invented the first helicopter and the tank.

Michelangelo, who as well as sculpting the statue of David, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The Renaissance was definitely a time of religion versus science. This was good for many people though, as all of this led on to HUMANISM, with a lot of decisions being put into the hands of men instead of god.

Around the world, nudity in art became more common and the body was to 'be celebrated' was the thought in art.

Part SIX = The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages.

The next bit of our history is what we call 'The Middle Ages,' which were between 5th to 15th century, of which we will talk about the western branch of it.

Previously and sometime known as 'The Dark Ages', because it is compared to the artistic, cultured, rich, educated and technology driven Romans. When their Empire collapsed, there was a lot of wars, battles and land grabbing, although on a smaller scale.

Their was a general lack of education for the common man, with only the rich getting education.

The fall of the Empire also created single or 'Mono' religions like Judaism, Islam and Christianity. People started looking to the Christians for a sense of belonging and for its sense of moral code.

During this period, knights would protect a village with a nobleman in charge, overseeing everything.

Crop rotation = the growing of different crops on one block of land each year, over a four year rotation, was introduced, which increased yields.

Churches became places of worship as well as a place for protection from invaders. Church spires had arrow slits in them to fend off intruders, whilst the villagers hid inside the building.

Churches also became rich and started to educate people, who were also taught in the churches and the bibles ways but as usual it was only the rich that could afford to pay for the services. These educated people would then write / reproduce copies of the scriptures. This in turn made the church a propaganda machine.

Remember it wasn't until 1440 AD, that Gutenberg invented the printing press. 100 pages a day could now to be produced, which was a lot more than when the only way of reproduction was hand copying, which was how copies of the bible had been made up until then.
  Remember

Art was also controlled, so most of the art from the Middle Ages is of a religious nature.

The BLACK DEATH (The Bubonic Plague):

This is something the middle ages are known for. The plague was thought to be spread by black rats, when it was actually spread by fleas that lived on the rats. It spread as the people didn't even have a basic understanding of cleanliness. The Egyptians in comparison, who were about thousands of years earlier, had a much higher concept of cleanliness.

Across Europe, 33 million people died and across the world 100 million died out of a world population of 400 million. This brought up questions about Christianity and why god would allow people to die? Various superstitions were brought to blame, involving cats, dogs.

If a single person in a household got the plague, they were forced to stay in their house with the rest of the household, basically condemning them all to death.

So how was a cure found? Well, one wasn't. The way that the plague died out, was when there were no more people left to contract it.

Even today, MADAGASCAR has a few hundred cases a year. SCARY eh???!!!

Part FIVE = Rome

The Romans.

The next section of history that we are going to look at is From Rome to The Middle Ages = 27BC to 467AD.

The Romans were the ones who developed the LATIN alphabet. Would you believe that this alphabet is ALMOST readable by us today?!? This is because a lot of the letters are very similar to our own modern alphabet.

The Romans are also famous now for the technology that they introduced to the world, like the following...

AQUEDUCTS: These took water from waterfalls and springs all the way to the cities, where this clean water could be used to wash, clean and cook with, as well as use it to grow crops with.

ROADS: These are famous for being built in straight lines, taking the most direct route from one place to another. How efficient is that?! Unlike modern roads, they were VERY well built and were made to be VERY long lasting. To do this they were built in layers, with silt underneath to lay the rocks on. They were so good in fact, that some of them still survive until today! I bet our motorways won't be around in over a thousand years time!

MILITARY: This was a very efficient group of soldiers, which when compared to their enemies who were just unorganised rabble.

They would used a layer of shields to protect themselves and were hard to break through. This made them a very successful army indeed.

Using their roads, armies could be quickly maneuvered to new uprisings at villages and put a quick stop to them.

Surprisingly, only a relatively small amount of Roman soldiers of about 150,00 men, managed to control large areas of various countries.

At the time, Rome itself had a population of about ONE million people of a world population of about 300 million. Compare that today, to today's population of about 6 billion people.

SCULPTURE: This particular subject moved forward greatly under the Romans.

It was considered a very important sign of wealth, if you had a sculpture done of yourself and the more realistic it was, the better, as it meant you could afford to employ the best of craftsmen.

A good likeness was also believed to stop you from coming back from the underworld and haunting your family. Today, in many places around the world, these sculptures can still be seen in very good condition.

Sculptures not only consisted of just heads but also large freezes and multi-personned enactments. Again these were something only the rich could afford.

MONEY: The Roman Empire was the first to use metal as a monetary system. They were also the first to put writing onto the coins along side portraits.

EMPIRE: Even with their relatively few troops, people abroad were convinced rather than beaten in a lot of cases, to accept the Roman culture, by bringing wealth and a better standard of living and a Republic to their countries. The idea of a Republic was new and it involved voting others into power. Through this, the Romans managed to develop culturally, with which the Romans came to control the people. They also brought in Cultural Imperialism, with one leader, leading the many.

This Empire lasted about 500 years, during which they managed to convince the people to pay taxes to keep up this standard of living that they had been introduced to.

Part FOUR = Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece.

After the Egyptian period, we have Ancient Greece, which is between about 500 to 300 BC (which as we already know is Before Computers!)

This period was a period of decline, mostly due to the bad weather and flooding of the River Nile. (You could almost compare the word's current turmoils to this, as we too are now getting unusual weather patterns around the world!)

The Ancient Greeks were famous for their theatres, with the Greek word 'AMPI'-theatre, meaning 'In the round.'

They were the first who developed the ideas of TRAGEDY and COMEDY as seen in the two masks used on a lot of theatrical programmes etc.

A famous play write of the time is called Aristotle (384 - 322BC.) He came up with the idea of the three part play i.e. the beginning; the middle and the end. Something which we think as so obvious and take totally for granted today.

He had the work PERFORMED rather than just NARRATED, as had previously been done.

He also introduced PATHOS = the sadness and understanding of SOMEONE-ELSE'S pain.

The modern equivalent of Aristotle, could be said to NOAM CHOMSKY, who also talks about Art and Politics. He's even written a book about it called 'Language and Mind.' Look it up if you want an interesting read! :-)

Part THREE = The Egyptians

The Egyptians.

Okay, lets whizz forward a few, well about 50,000 years to Ancient Egypt. You know what that is right?!?

It's where the pyramids are (which are the square pointy buildings in the middle of the desert)... Did you know that the deserts are the remains of seabeds from long, long ago?.. Well they are!

So, what are the pyramids exactly?

Well, they were tombs for the pharoh's kings when they died.

In fact they are very BIG TOMBS, if you ever manage to get to see them!
But why were they SO BIG you ask?

Well, the reason that the pharoh's were put in such an EN-OR-MOUS structure, was that the pharoh's were considered to be gods by their people... so ONLY the BIGGEST would do!

And it WASN'T JUST the pharohs, who were put in the tombs. Along with their bodies, there was put loads of gold, food and wine to feed the pharoh's and to help them when they travelled to the afterlife.

Mummified animals were also put in. This was to keep the pharohs company - so that they wouldn't get lonely! Aaaaaah...

Cats were a very popular animal to be put in, as these were believed to be the embodiment of Bastet, who was the goddess of the sun's warmth and life-giving power. (The Egyptians had an awful lot of gods... Check them out for yourself if you've got a spare hour or so.)

Like the pharohs, the cats bodies were also mummified and put into their own little (aaaaarghhhh) sarcophagus's (coffins) in the pyramids. The most famous mummified cat was found in King Tutankhamun's tomb and was called Tiddles (well, as close as it could be in Egyptian hieroglyphics...)


ALSO, did you know that Tutankhamun is more commonly known as King Tut? Now that name is much easier to say and spell don't you think? (I blame the parents myself!)

Not that long ago, in 1922, King Tut's tomb, which has remained hidden for over 3,000 years, was discovered by Howard Carter and his sponser (and bestist mate... probably...) Lord Carnarvon.

They were very lucky to find it though, as everyone else thought that there was nothing else to find in the Valley of the Kings...

Did they prove everyone wrong or what?!

The amount of treasure that was found totally AMAZED everyone then and since. A lot of this treasure has since travelled the world in mannnnny exhibitions.

Until this time, stories passed through the generations changed with each telling = just like 'Chinese Whispers' really. So the Egyptians invented HIEROGLYPHICS, which is a pictorial alphabet. This became essential to communication as it helped to STOP the embellishment and changing of stories through time.

When first discovered in modern times, the hieroglyphics were thought to be JUST pictures (as if!) But the discovery of the ROSETTA STONE, which had THREE (not just one or two...) different languages on it, which enabled the hyroglyphics to be translated for the very first time!

Stories were also started to be written down on papyrus, a paper like material made from plants. In fact that's where the word paper originates from, papyrus. These written down stories enabled text and pictures to be shared with others = basic communication.