Middle Ages Art, Music, and Food

Middle Ages Art

This tapestry might have been found in a rich noble's house

The artwork in the Middle Ages was sculpting, stained glass, metalwork, and mosaics. The art was based on people in their everyday life. Art was displayed in churches and rich nobles’ houses. Tapestries were made by women of the castle and showed scenes from history, mythology and from everyday lives. Most of the sculptures and metalwork were saved and valued highly. Artisans made and sold their artwork, and blacksmiths and goldsmiths would make sculptures with leftover materials.

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Middle Ages Music

This minstrel is playing the lute

Many of the Musical instruments that were used in the Middle Ages are similar or the same as the ones we use today, but might be made of different materials. An example is the flute. It was made of wood of silver metals. Minstrels played these instruments to rich nobles and royalty. Minstrels usually carried a traveling harp and sung. Another intrument is a lute, which is very similar to a guitar. The man in the picture is playing a lute.

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Middle Ages Food

In the Middle Ages, the more land you had, the better you ate. So if you were a serf, you ate a portion of what you grew. (The other part went to the King or the lord you worked for.) On the patch of land you tended, you might grow barley, oats, wheat, and rye. If you lived in the Manor house as a servant, you would eat the leftovers of the master’s meal, which means the food grown by the serfs and the meat the lord caught. The lord of the house got to eat the juiciest piece of fowl, while you got the bones, but it was better than nothing. The King ate whatever he wanted. Some kings were nice and would give the scraps to starving peasants, while others would throw them away, even in droughts and famines.