Baroque History For Kids! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Flemish

Flemish people came from an area that we know today as Belgium. Rubens was born in 1577 and died in 1640. His paintings that we have today are very good examples of the Baroque period. They are filled with tiny details and depict many dramatic or religious subjects. He was particularly fond of painting rather tubby women and solid men. Quite a few of these were not wearing clothes. Goodness me!

One of his famous paintings which included all these styles is called "The Fall of Man". Rubens painted this in 1628-29. It tells the dramatic story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, just as they disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. It is filled with many details in the background, but features a naked Adam and Eve in the foreground. Adam is painted as muscular and a bit overweight. Eve, on the other hand, is shown as more than a bit overweight.

Sculpture of this period was as detailed as paintings were. I'm sure you'll agree that having to sculpt a huge chunk of marble would be much more difficult than painting on a piece of canvas. One amazing feature of Baroque sculpture is the incredible detail of the clothing or material any statues wear. Intricate folds in the material have been sculptured everywhere. It's quite beautiful and breathtaking. One statue that captures this, more than any other, is that of Saint Theresa being visited by an angel. The great Gian Lorenzo Bernini made this. He was an Italian sculptor who lived from 1598 to 1680.

Answer: Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren lived from 1632 to 1723. He is described as one of the greatest architects in English history. He designed and built fifty-one churches, and many other buildings in London. This took place after a great fire that city had in 1666. St Paul's cathedral is considered to be his masterpiece. From the years 1710 to 1962, it was the tallest building in the city of London. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? This truly impressive building has been named after Paul the apostle.

One of interesting parts of the cathedral is the Whispering Gallery. This is a long walkway built under the main dome, and it goes around in a big circle. It's built 99 feet above the main floor. To get to it, you have to climb 259 steps. Just about everyone is puffing by the time they reach the top. If you whisper against the wall anywhere in this gallery, that whisper can be heard at any other point on that level, no matter how far away it is.

Wealthy people of the time also lived in grand and imposing buildings. The poor people lived in anything, and anywhere, they could. This was a period when many people still lived off the land. They either worked on tiny farms of their own if they were lucky, or in great country estates of the wealthy. Living in the country was far healthier than living in the cities. Most of these cities, apart from a few large and magnificent buildings, were cramped, dirty and extremely unhealthy. Plague and disease was a constant threat.

Answer: Roman Catholic

At this time in history, the church was more important in the lives of people than any other part of their existence. They attended services every week and on other special days. They also listened and obeyed the advice of the church. They supported the church, and were married, had babies baptised, and were buried from the church. In return, the church at that time, was the main provider of any education that was available. It provided shelter for the poor and hungry and much employment on its large properties. It also built hospitals and other places where sick people could be looked after. Not like those we have today of course, but the church did all this when hardly any other organisation did. The church also encouraged the creation of many of the great works of art and the grand and mighty buildings that can still be seen today.

This period however was also a time when other religions were beginning to spring up to challenge the church. Most of these religions are known under the general name of Protestants. That means they were protestors against the church. Many wars were fought between Catholics and Protestants over religion, and many people were put to death by both groups. Don't you think this was all so sad and silly? They killed each other over arguments about God - when God taught that killing is wrong.

Answer: Long curly wigs

Very poor people at this time wore whatever they could. Lower class people wore simple and easy clothing for the most part. With working class people, you could tell which job a person had, in many cases, by the clothing that was worn. The clothing of the wealthy is the clothing we most recognise from this time. This is because there were many paintings of the rich and powerful from that time, so we have a visual record of what was worn. It is interesting to see that men were usually dressed in much fancier clothing than women. Their clothing included coats of brocade, fancy frilled shirts, and velvet breeches which buttoned or tied off below the knee. They also wore swooping, feathered hats, stockings, shoes with buckles and rather high thick heels - and wigs. Long curly wigs that went down past their shoulders. They looked like cocker spaniels.

Women's dresses became softer and more feminine. They were decorated with ribbons and lace. Sometimes their sleeves ended just below the elbow. This displayed the lower parts of their arms for the first time in centuries. Shocking! They also wore beautiful, feathered hats, pretty buckled shoes, and layers of beautiful lacy petticoats. These were shown to best advantage when the skirts of their dresses were pinned back to reveal them. Their hair was usually worn up in intricate folds on the top of their heads.

The height of these hairstyles eventually became ridiculous over time, with some hairstyles as high as three feet, or a metre. They were also decorated with feathers or ornaments as well in many cases. Electricity hadn't been invented yet, so rooms were lit by candles. Chandeliers with vast numbers of glowing candles hung down from the ceilings of rich houses. Some women with these foolishly high hairstyles had to be careful standing under these chandeliers in case their hair caught fire! Their hats also became ridiculously high and wide as the era progressed. So much so that many women had to enter a room sidewards to avoid their hats being knocked off.

Answer: Forks

That's right - the simple little fork was created at this time in history. It was invented in Italy and its use spread from there. Before this people ate with spoons or their fingers, and sliced their meat at the table with large carving knives. Table decorations became very ornate for the wealthy during this time as well. Large and beautiful decorations, called centrepieces, were placed on the table with each new course. Factories began to make lovely porcelain dinner sets at this time. Prior to this, the wealthy ate from silver or gold plates. Glass factories also began to manufacture beautifully designed glasses and dishes. It was all very posh indeed.

Meals sometimes went for hours, with all the food that was consumed and the fashionable chit-chat that went on. Courses included fancy soups, turkey, grouse, quail, fish, pig, eggs, chicken, a vast array of sweets and desserts, and lots and lots of wine. Oh my stars - you would burst if you tried to eat all that today. You were also expected to join in the various conversations taking place. All I would want to let emerge from my mouth would be one long burp.

The lower classes ate bread, fruit, pies, and sweets of various kinds. They tended to drink ale instead of wine. The reason most people drank alcohol with their meals back then was that there were no water cleaning facilities such as we have today. Rivers were full of rubbish, raw sewerage, and carried all kinds of bugs and germs. If you drank water in the city, you were practically begging to get sick. So there we would all be if we had a fancy Baroque meal today - bursting at the seams, burping, and highly intoxicated.

Answer: Bach

Music from this era was also very ornamented. It had piles of little notes that had to be played in between the regular notes that set the beat. These were usually known as trills if you had to sing any lyrics with this music. Opera and opera houses sprang up during this time. The poor old female singers in particular were trilling all over the place. Baroque operas and ordinary songs are difficult to sing, and the music is hard to play as well because of all those extra notes.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the many great composers from this era. He was born in Germany in 1685 and he died there in 1750 - right at the end of the Baroque period. The great composer, Beethoven, who was from a later era, described Bach as "the original father of harmony" in music. Bach composed an enormous amount of music. A great deal of this was church music. A couple of other great composers from this era were Handel, Vivaldi and Purcell. They all wrote lovely music as well. Some of this can still be heard today in classical music concerts. Calling it "classical" music is a general term. There is a separate era in music known as the classical period as well.

Because there were no television or radio or movie theatres at this time, many people went along to playhouses, called theatres, to see plays being performed on stage by actors. Many of these plays were comedies. Life was hard, so people liked to go to theatres to relax, have a good time, and a few laughs. Sometimes the plays were serious as well. I doubt if you would have enjoyed them however. They were a bit grim. William Shakespeare died in 1616. He was a great writer of plays and his works still are performed today. Much of his work was written in the Elizabethan era, but his great tragedies were mostly written in the early part of the Baroque era. I doubt very much you will see any other written works by other writers from this era performed or studied until you get to university, if you decide to go there.

Answer: Herbs and other plants

Because this was an age of great exploration as well, overseas explorers brought back many new plants and herbs from overseas countries such as South America and the Asian countries. These plants were said to be effective in the treatment of various illnesses. Two of the first cures discovered from them were for diarrhoea and dysentery. These illnesses, if left untreated, were once capable of killing people. Treatments for small ulcers were also discovered, and for migraine headaches. Did you know that long ago before these new plants were discovered, a severe headache was treated by boring a hole into your skull to let the pressure out? Taking a plant extract was much, much easier, don't you think?

Herbs and plants were found to be useful in the treatment of abscessed teeth and childbirth problems and high fever as well. All these medical conditions could once kill people very easily. Some herbs were found to be effective for heart problems too. During this time in history, men of science also discovered how the circulation of blood moved through the body, and how the internal parts of the body worked. Prior to this era, the only way that the internal parts of the body could be seen was by the aid of grave robbers. These were men who stole recently dead people for early scientists to cut open. If they were caught, they were all in huge trouble.

Other treatments for various health problems continued to be discovered in this era. Nothing like we have today, but the very beginning of this. It was still very barbaric and primitive however, and, all in all, it was NOT a good time to fall sick. It was however better than previous eras. The world owes a great debt to those early scientists and herbalists and investigators in improving health treatments. In the future, treatments and drugs will improve even further. One day people will look back on our own era in astonishment and think our medical treatments very barbaric and primitive too.

Answer: Stilts

Stilts can still be seen occasionally today, usually in parades where tall figures can be seen walking along on them. Feet are usually, but not always, tied to the poles for extra security. Giant steps can be taken by walking along on stilts. It's a long way to fall down though, so it's wise to practise on smaller stilts at first. They'd be excellent for window-washers don't you think? Although, it would be hard to pick up a bucket of water if you dropped it.

Adult entertainment for the ordinary everyday person included lacrosse, bowls, folk dancing, or tests of strength (for the men) such as tossing objects, or tug of war. Nobody was allowed to play any gambling related games, but some still managed to do this secretly. Gambling was considered sinful. Going to the theatre wasn't really approved of either, but that didn't deter those who wanted to. Children played games such as dolls (for girls of course), marbles, stilts, tongue twisters, blowing bubbles, spinning tops, kites, knucklebones or hoops. Children worked just as hard as adults in this period, doing chores round the home or farm, so when they were allowed time off to play, they made sure they had a good time. In fact, they're no different at all from children of today - except for having to work much harder. Aren't you glad you live now?

Answer: Ice cream

Ice cream or some form of it was known around the world for thousands of years, going right back to the days of Babylon. The Chinese made it also, as did the Arabs, and the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Then it finally arrived in Europe in the Baroque period. Yum, this is making me want some.

Just a few of the other inventions and innovations that came out of this interesting period in history include floating docks, printing, the growth of newspapers, the thermometer, steam engines, syringe, wind gauge, instruments to measure blood pressure and temperature, the barometer, slide rule, and the tuning fork. Guns and weapons were improved upon and the early hand grenade was invented - unfortunately. Modernised methods of shoeing horses (the cars of the day) were also developed and are still used today. Increased improvements in agriculture also evolved. Life, without the modern conveniences we have now, was very busy and filled with endless jobs to do, and large families to feed.

There was also the permanent reintroduction of banknotes, tea and coffee, the establishment of giant banking companies, the publication of the King James Bible and the first English dictionary, a mechanical calculator, pendulum clocks, and, believe it or not, somebody even tried inventing an early submarine. That, however, wasn't too successful.

Answer: America

The indigenous people of this great country had lived on the continent of North America for approximately 40,000 years. Europeans first began to settle there from the early 1600s. The country developed and expanded from that time. It was ruled from England at first, but from 1776 on, it began life as an independent nation. Today it is one of the most powerful nations in the world. Other countries battled for independence from other rulers during this period, and all of Europe at one time seemed to be one giant battlefield. The English, Portuguese, Spanish and French all struggled and fought to gain lands in the Americas and in Africa as well. The Turks and the Russians and the Holy Roman Empire and Poland also fought long wars. Oh, for some peace! This did eventually come about, but it took a long time.

Advances in maths and science took place as well, and some of the greatest music ever written was created. The tight control of the church over people's lives began to weaken as the age of scientific discovery began to grow. This also provoked quite a struggle for supremacy for some time. Men and women began to think and challenge beliefs, instead of simply just believing what they were told. They were also beginning to appreciate the worth and value of individuals as well. They started to realise that people could, to a degree, control what happened in their lives. Up until that happened, they just accepted what life dished out to them and said it was the will of God. Humankind was beginning to grow up however, and the world was beginning to change as a result.