old time is still a flying,
And that same flower that blooms today,
tomorrow shall be dying
~James Thomson, 1700-1748
Recently, I played Timeline with my kids. It's a card game where you try to put events in the order that they happened. For instance, was the microscope invented before or after the telescope? Which animals were domesticated first -- sheep, cows, or cats? Which came first -- the wheel or the brick? It's an interesting game, one that surprised us quite a bit. (Not surprised that cats were the last to be domesticated, though!)
If you are looking at events over a long span of time, such as the making of cave paintings vs. the invention of the newspaper, it's pretty easy to tell which came first. But when they are all in the same century, things can get tricky. In the 1700s, the tuning fork, the steam engine, the typewriter, the celsius scale, lightning rods, rubber erasers, submarines, hot air balloons, and the metric system were all invented. Do you know in what order? (Check the bottom of this post to find out.)
Today for Art Thursday we have a little timeline of portraits from the 1700s. I'm putting them in order of the birth of the portraits' subjects. I like seeing amazing people who were alive at the same time.
Voltaire, French writer and philosopher, 1694 – 1778
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Karim Khan Zand, c. 1705 – 1779, reputed to be one of the most just and able rulers in Iranian history
Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790, genius
by David Martin
The Qianlong Emperor, 1711 – 1799
Frederick the Great, 1712 – 1786, Prussian king. In this portrait, Frederick plays the flute and C. P. E. Bach accompanies him on the harpsichord.
by Adolph Menzel
Catherine the Great, 1729 – 1796, the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia
Marie Antoinette, 1755 – 1793. This portrait is Marie Antoinette at the age of thirteen; it was sent to the dauphin so he could see his bride before he met her
by Joseph Ducreux
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 – 1791
by Dora Stock
Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759 – 1797, writer, philosopher, advocate of women's rights, mother of Mary Shelley
by John Opie
Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817
by Cassandra Austen
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Answer to the question above: I put the inventions in chronological order!
What a fascinating concept. So interesting to think of Marie Antoinette, Jane Austen, and Catherine the Great being alive at the same time. Wouldn't have guessed that!
ReplyDelete(Wouldn't have guessed, either, that Frederick the Great played flute with C.P.E. Bach.)
And would have tanked on the order of inventions you listed. :-(
Wow...what a collection of amazing people! I need to put this idea to use in my social studies classes.
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