The Medieval Era was a period of time where if you were born into a certain class, there was no way to work your way up the ranks. If you were born into a peasant family, you were inevitably going to live the life of a peasant and if you were born into a noble family, you are inevitably going to become a person of nobility. But there was one middle class society known as tradesmen who tried to flip this notion on its head. The thing that set it apart from all the other classes was variety of skills. All other classes specialized in one skill, while tradesmen had their own personal skill whether it was painting, contracting, or any other trade. With other societal persons depending on a specialized skill from the tradesmen class, it made it easy for tradesmen to enhance their economic wealth. The burgeoning of the tradesmen in the Medieval Era is most closely depicted in a piece of art called The Theodora Mosaic in San Vitale. This painting is categorized as a Byzantine painting. In the painting there are ten men dressed in different colored robes standing in a row. The different colors they wear symbolize each one of their specialized skills. This painting is trying to show that even though these tradesmen stand together and form a class, they offer a variety of skills which make them a unique and economically wealthy class.
Our group synthesized the same assumption; we too believed that the middle class of tradesmen was this new and powerful group of specialized workers that differ in their fields but come together to share their skills that essentially forms this strong unit. We think that the painting this group chose was very intriguing! We never would have deduced that the different colors of the tradesmen implied their differing professions and skills; that's really fascinating! And that made us think further into the evolution of the powerful middle class. We have come to the conclusion that power is denoted to differing and open minds. The nobility class never succeeded popularity wise because they all thought the same! The tradesmen not only brought different skills to the table but also different opinions and thinking styles that ultimately made them a powerful "class" (eventually overthrowing the nobles) because they accepted and attracted a majority of thinking.
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Lillie Moffett, Lauren Wakabayashi, Nicole Lussier, Sooji Hong
The commentary on class and where people stood in the time period was great. We felt this was a neccessity in everyone's synthesis response question because when all of us think of the medieval time period we think of the different categories people were sorted into based on this idea of class and skill-set. What made this even better was when you elaborated on the tradesmen. The idea of having multiple purposes in society is quiet fascinating, and gave a big sense of flexibility in ways to produce. It gave us great insight about the beliefs of tradesmen and the characteristics of their class. We were not aware that they were a powerful class and the different aspects of their professions.Your team has given valid arguements about the whereabouts of middle class tradesmen. We believe that developing more detail and examples in your answer will help better your assumptions. Overall your team did a fantastic job. Keep up the good work!
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