Good morning, today we are going to be looking at the life of Ivan the Terrible. The run time for this documentary is 52:23.
He was orphaned as a child. He was brought up in a system of political violence. He liberates Russia from foreign leaders. He committed his first murder at the age of thirteen. He was the first Tsar of Russia. Was he a harsh ruler who demanded absolute loyalty? Or was he an intellectual? Who is the real Ivan the Terrible? A criminal profiler looks for those answers. Additionally, Ivan’s face will be reconstructed during this documentary. The descriptions of Ivan’s character are often contradictory to the picture of the man. Axel Peterman, a criminal profiler looks to create a profile of the Tsar. He turns to the records written in Ivan’s hands, instead of what comes down through history. The first impression he gets from Ivan is that the man was intelligent. At the age of three, Ivan loses his father and then eventually his mother. His mother was most likely poisoned. Russia is ruled by the Boyars. The boyars are harsh with Ivan. He has to fight for his food. The boyars lock him in a room for no reason. He was often beaten. The boyars would have wished that Ivan would have disappeared. Ivan lived in a constant state of fear as a child. He would tap into these fears when he came into power. Ivan was at the mercy of his tormentors and he knew it. In 1543, at thirteen, Ivan’s impotence turns to rage. He realizes he has power and he uses it. So he strikes back against the boyars. He turns a pack of dogs on the leader of the boyars. This leader is torn to pieces. The boyars grow fearful of Ivan and he knows it. He enjoys that he can cause fear. The dogs are an extension of him and they follow his orders. The act shocks the Orthodox Church and the church leaders will have to come to the task with that. A Monk is appointed his teacher and he learns to read and write. Ivan learns his family tree through these lessons and feels that he is appointed by God to rule. In 1547, Ivan grows up under the supervision of the church. He marries when he is seventeen to Anastasia Romanova. The search for the bride was extensive before he selected Anastasia. She was his most loyal companion and was a calming influence for Ivan. Ivan is also declared Grand Duke of Russia and was named Tsar of the Russian Empire. After his proclamation, Ivan leads his troops against the Mongol Hordes. A victory would cement his place as a leader of the Russian people. He comes up with a trick that allows him to move fortifications quickly. Eventually, Ivan leads his troops to victory over the Mongols. The Mongols are unstoppable in open fields, however, in closed quarters their soldiers are useless. Ivan retook the Kazan. This victory strengthens the feelings of Russian Nationalism all over the country and this nationalism carries down to the present day. There were songs written about Ivan’s victory. The peasants loved Ivan even though he was an autocratic ruler. This would be a contradiction to what history has talked about Ivan the Terrible. Ivan builds a church in honor of his victory over the Mongols. Ivan in the first half of his rule reforms the law and sets up a parliament of nobles. He hammers down on corruption. Whoever violates Ivan’s law, is violating God’s will and is condemned to die. These are hints of the brutality to come in the latter half of his rule. Even by the standards of the sixteenth century, Ivan’s judgments were cruel. What drove Ivan to do these terrible things? What portrait will the criminal profile paint of Ivan the Terrible? Did his childhood traumas make him the man he was? Does history get Ivan the Terrible wrong? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about Ivan the Terrible. This was an interesting documentary about Ivan the Terrible. It was neat that the criminal profiler went to the original records to discover the real Ivan the Terrible. This would be a good documentary to show in a history class and for students who are working on a biography of Ivan the Terrible.
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Good morning, we are going to do an exploration of a pair of Renaissance artists: Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger. The run time for this documentary is 42:37.
They are two of the greatest artist of the 16th Century, Lucas and Lucas Cranach. They ran a workshop and produced some of the greatest works of the Reformation. They made their fortune painting. The pair were personal friends of Martin Luther. They painted more and faster than any of their contemporaries. Generations of scholars have studied the Cranachs’, however, there are still questions that have to be answered. Today, modern technology may have scholars find the answers they are looking for. Today, scholars are studying a piece that came from the Cranachs’ workshop. Was this altarpiece done by the elder or the younger? The altarpiece looks like it was created according to Cranach’s the Elder’s instructors. Cranach the Elder began painting familiar motifs. The Saints wore fashions of the day and jewelry and were placed in realistic scenes. It was a new world and he was exploring it through painting. In Wittenberg, the All Saints Castle Church and Saint Mary’s Town Church dominated the horizon. The elector of Saxony had a residence in Wittenberg. His name was Frederick the Wise and he dreamed of a Renaissance with a Saxon touch. He was a patron of the arts and education. He established the University of Wittenberg and it would be the center of the arts and sciences. Intellectual freedom and humanism flourished in Wittenberg. It was a small town and had about 2,500 people. It was dominated by students and professors. There were printers and other trades. So many talents came together in this one town. In 1505, Lucas Cranach was appointed court painter by Frederick the Wise. Lucas was paid a yearly salary and it was a respectable position. One of the primary duties was to paint the ruler’s portrait. He also supervised the decoration for the tournaments that were held at the castle and would then would do a wood engraving of the events. Cranach although informed about what was happening in Italy during the Renaissance, ignored what was coming out. He continuously developed his style. He faced criticism for his choices. When he arrived at Wittenberg, he created a painting for the castle church. It was of the Virgin Mary and she was portrayed as looking directly at the viewer. A depiction of Mary in the flesh would have been unthinkable before the Renaissance. The Cranach workshop produced 15,000 works. Since 2009, these works and information about the works have been published on the Cranach Digital Archive. This archive is accessible to scholars. One work, the Martyrdom of St. Catherine was a popular subject to paint. Not much is known about Lucas Cranach the Elder. He was believed to be born in Cranach in the German region of Franconia and would have received his training in his father’s workshop. He would have left home as a journeyman. Eventually, he would disappear from the record before emerging as a painter in Vienna. Vienna was a major city in the Holy Roman Empire and it would be here he would paint his first known works. His early paintings show that he was developing his style. He would eventually meet Martin Luther and would become friends. The Church permeated society, if you were a citizen of a city, you belonged to the parish too. Martin Luther would start a revolution with his 99 Thesis and Cranach would become the painter of the Reformation. His new paintings would depict the relationship between man and God. He conveyed theology in paintings and would show the changes that were going on in Wittenberg. Cranach would paint the people he knew in Biblical scenes. Cranach was close friends with Luther. Eventually, Cranach would witness the marriage between Martin Luther and Katherina von Bora. Luther would witness Cranach’s marriage to his wife. To learn more about the Cranachs’, their workshop, and their place in the Reformation, continue to watch this documentary. I am trying to build up a list for the Renaissance and found this documentary while exploring that topic. This would be a good documentary for an art history class or independent study students. The Cranach Archive is found here: https://lucascranach.org/home During the 14th Century, the Black Death ripped through Europe. It was a pivotal time during the Middle Ages. The town of Tadcaster, England was hit especially hard. It is here where multiple graves were found. There were no grave goods found. Who were these people? How did they die? Who was this person? What can this skeleton tell us about the Black Death in England? The run time for this documentary is 46:00.
The seventh-year after the Black Death began in Europe, it finally arrived in England. It began in the downs and ports and then made its way inland. The countryside was void of people. It soon swept through England. It arrived at the town of Tadcaster, in Yorkshire England. The average life expectancy was 30 years and everyone struggled with daily living. Life was a hand-to-mouth existence. Tim Sutherland hints that people were living at a substance level. Even then, the poorest of the poor had to give any abundance to the higher-ups in society. The story then turns to the storage facilities where thousands and thousands of skeletons are kept. Many have not been examined when they were discovered. Today, some of those skeletons are undergoing an examination. These skeletons are going to reveal their secrets. It is surprising to discover that historians are still learning more about the Middle Ages. Malin Holst is an osteoarcheologist who looks at skeletons. She is with the University of York. She talks about the skeletons in storage and plans on examining them. The skeletons reveal that there were a variety of diseases and the owner’s social status. Malin is often called in to examine the bones when discoveries are made. She establishes all the facts she can about the individuals. The skeletons are forwarded to specialists who work to find out what this person died from and even extract DNA. Tadcaster had seen its share of history. There was a castle on the site. It had seen battles of the English Civil War. However, during the Black Death, it was a place of death. One local had heard about a grim discovery on the site of Castle Hill. Simon Richardson was entranced by the discovery and had an obsession with archeology. He had learned that there were skeletons found in a garden site. Twelve individuals were found on the site. Simon went away from Tadcaster for a time and then come back. The castle site changed hands and when Simon returned, he was asked to clear the site. He discovered the site had become overgrown. He set to work to clear it. When he started clearing the site, he found another skeleton with a hole in the skull. Was this a victim of the battle? Did he flee from a battle? An excavation took place on the site and more skeletons were found. What was this site? Was this a cemetery? Why were these people buried on Castle Hill instead of being buried in the Church Cemetery? The skeletons were buried oddly as if these were rushed burials. Some were buried in groups. Others were buried face down. There was a challenge to dating on the site. The skeletons were not buried with grave goods or anything to indicate a time frame. Simon and Tim walk the castle hill site and talk about the history of the site. What can the history of the site tell us about the graves? What can it tell us about the development of Tadcaster? Why was the castle hill site abandoned? Why were these bodies buried on the Hill? However, these simple questions are going to have some complicated answers. Malin Holst works to examine the Tadcaster Skeletons, she is examining one of the skeletons. What will she discover about this skeleton? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the skeleton. Well, the build-up to the revelation that the skeleton was a woman was really slow. The background to the site could have been cut in half. I was going to share this documentary in March, but the build-up to the fact the skeleton was a woman gave me pause. That said, it would be an interesting view for a science class as well as a history class because this documentary was heavily influenced by the science behind history. |
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |