During the medieval era the social hierarchy started with the peasants at the bottom, the tradesmen, the clergy, the knights and then the nobles. The majority were tradesmen and as the era progressed, this boisterous group of men and women began to dominant. Before their “domination”, so to speak, wealth and good fortune depended on how high you were on the hierarchy ladder. So really, where you were born is where you stayed. However, tradesmen at the time were very specialized; every man had something he was good at, and used this personal and specialized skill to his advantage to essentially monopolize economically. These tradesmen could satisfy the basic needs and wants of the people: carpentry, shoe making, sewing, blacksmith etc. Over time this group of specialized workers became wealthy. One, they were the majority. Two, they had something to offer and contribute to the economy which helped them mold into this foundation of aristocracy that had earlier been granted to the nobles. One piece of artwork that depicts this domination is a painting by Gillis Mostaert titled “Village Festival”. In this painting a street fair or marketplace is presented with numerous boisterous merchants and tradesmen. Compared to the paintings of nobles and clergy that were generally posed, stolid and boring, the painting of the tradesmen illustrates a liveliness and more personable quality to the people in it. Obviously, Mostaert, as well as other artists of the time, favored and admired this rowdy bunch that seemed to signal some precursor to this “new power” and how this group could potentially overthrow the nobles and clergy of the era who didn’t possess nearly the same intellect, personality and skill as the tradesmen. This rung on the hierarchy ladder was about to pass all the rest. We will see this “stronger” middle class as we study the renaissance era.
- Team Waka
Lillie Moffett, Lauren Wakabayashi, Nicole Lussier, Sooji Hong
As you talk about, a major change in the Medieval era was the rise of tradesmen with specialized skill who were able to achieve an increased level of social mobility. The changing economy was now dependent on weekly markets and heightened stature in one's profession provided a plausible path toward wealth and prosperity.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that this cultural change was a driving force behind the increased depiction of tradesmen in the art of the period. They replaced stationary nobles in a lot of art, and this shift represented the removal of barriers between the common tradesman and the noble that would continue during the Renaissance.