Paleolithic Venus

The Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture that was sculpted out of limestone and stands to be 4 ½’’ tall. The figurine was most likely carved out of limestone because early pre-historic artists generally had to create art out of whatever materials they had available. The figurine is only 4 ½” tall is because it was common for pre-historic artists to carve small, hand held, portable figurines. The sculpture was found on the banks of the Danube River, an area where pre-historic hunter-gatherers were thought to have lived and traded goods with other civilians. The use of this piece of artwork is to portray the importance of women and fertility in pre-historic times because these features are ones that ensured the survival and future of mankind.

During my visit to the Tampa Museum of Art, I observed and viewed various pieces from The Classical World exhibit. While I observed numerous works, I was drawn to a specific piece due to its uniqueness when compared to the other pieces in the exhibit. In this paper, I will be describing The Torso of Aphrodite, using my own viewpoints and the elements of formal art analysis, in order to explain the uniqueness when compared to other pieces in The Classical World exhibit.

Upon reviewing several pieces, I have come across two orphaned sculptures of interest: the Venus of Willendorf and the Apollo Belvedere. The Venus of Willendorf is a small Paleolithic female figurine that was discovered in 1908 in the village of Willendorf in Austria. The Apollo Belvedere, on the other hand, is a Roman marble copy of a Greek original that embodies the image of Apollo: the god of healing, archery, music, and youth. If we were to categorize these two sculptures as “Anthropomorphic Gods and Goddesses”, the Venus of Willendorf would not fit the category. Unlike the Roman sculpture, the Venus of Willendorf does not have enough contextual history to link its image to a god.

Bone and stone carvings from more than 30,000 years ago were used to understand cosmology. The Venus of Laussel is 1.5 foot high limestone bas-relief of a pregnant female with swollen distended breasts, painted with red ochre and a bison horn with 13 cuts. They believe the horn of the woman may represent the crescent moon and that the 13 cuts symbolize a relationship between the lunar cycle and the menstrual cycle.

Taking place during the month of July, all female members of all households would plant fast-growing plants on the top of the roofs of their houses, calling the garden the “Garden of Adonis”, as they were honoring Adonis. Theses plants would be nurtured for a consecutive eight days, and then completely ignored, left to die in the sun. Afterward, in which case all the plants died, the women grieved for the loss. Following, a play most likely based on Greek tradition was held, depicting Venus and Adonis’ wedding. To conclude the festival, Adonis effigies were made and placed in coffins.

The Venus de Milo is one of the most famous Greek statues from the Hellenistic age. Created between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite (or Venus to Romans), the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It stands at 6 feet 8 inches tall and is made entirely of marble, the most abundant sculpting material of the Aegean islands. The inscription on its original base credits "Alexandros, son of Menides, citizen of Antioch" as the statue's creator. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. (Lethaby, 1919)

During the Upper Paleolithic era artists created a wide range of small sculptures. These sculptures were made from various materials, including ivory, bone, clay, and even stone. They represented humans, as well as animals; they even combined them at times. Most of the sculptures from this time show a high level of skill. From this time, there were two very influential sculptures, The Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Laussel. This paper will discuss both sculptures, in detail, as well as, compare and contrast them.

I am writing about The Woman of Willendorf from the Paleolithic Period. This female figurine was named “Venus of Willendorf” by a archeologist in 1908. The statue was carved from limestone and was colored with red orche. The sculptor is 4 and 3/8 inches in height but seems much larger due to it’s rounded forms. This statue is an important icon of prehistory. Archeologists have suggested different ways of understanding the sifginicance from which it was made. One of the first suggestions is that it was a “Venus figure” or “Goddess” used as a symbol of fertility. The statue has an enlarged stomach and breasts, the pubic area is emphasized probably serving as a symbol of procreation. The second suggestion is that the sculpute may have been

A Venus figure or figurine is a prehistoric sculpture dating back as far as 35 thousand years ago. These are the oldest known forms of figurative art known to exist. Created by numerous Paleolithic cultures from the Gravettion period around 25,000 B.C, some researchers call this the first sign of intelligent beings on earth. The sculptures were prone to many different crafting techniques that included casting, the carving of softer rock material including limestone, calcite, ivory, and bone that often depicted an exaggerated and disproportional body of a woman. A softer source material helped the craftsmen sculpt the Venus figure more precisely. The sculptures are vastly skewed and often have a relatively tiny, faceless head in contrast with

Michael Way from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and his colleagues have applied the first three-dimensional climate model to early Venus in order to visualize the complexities of its atmosphere and to predict how Venus might have looked in its early existence. The model uses the same computer simulations used to predict climate changes on Earth in order to predict climate changes on early Venus. The team ran the model for Venus’s climate 2.9 billion years ago, and then again for 715 million years ago. Keeping Venus’s present-day topography and rotation speed intact, they discovered that the temperature of Venus 2.9 billion years ago could have been similar to Earth’s (around 11 degrees Celsius) and that the planet would have only

Venus should be colonized instead of Mars because of Venus’s alike size to Earth, closer distance, and similar gravity. All of which would make establishing a colony easier. Space colonization is a step above space exploration, and indicates a long term presence outside of earth. Colonization of space is the best way to ensure the survival of humanity, the economic and scientific benefits can not be ignored as well.

Thirdly, the sculpture is very accessible; the empty space around the sculpture provides students an opportunity to go closer and explore the sculpture in more detail. The space behind the sculpture allows walking around to view the sculpture from different angles. It is clear to recognize the sculpture as Venus from the front side, however, when standing really close to the backside or the side face of the sculpture, the image of Venus is really vague. since the carving is not very in detailed at those faces. As a result, rather than being regarded as Venus, the sculpture can be seen as anything. The sculpture then could be interpreted in a million ways with imagination. Moreover, the creator’s name: Jim Dine, the sculptor, and the year of it was created are engraved on a very small plate next

Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and is the closest to the sun. It takes 88 days to orbit the sun and its day lasts for 58 earth days. Mercury gets up to 800 degrees during the daytime and as cold as 300 degrees below zero at night. It has no atmosphere and has a rocky surface filled with craters caused by meteors crashing into it Venus is the second planet from the sun and is the hottest planet in the solar system, over 900 degrees. It is the hottest because of the thick blanket of clouds that trap the sun's heat. A day on Venus is longer than its year. A day on Venus last 243 earth days and its year is only 224 earth days. Earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water. Our atmosphere is 78% nitrogen and

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli is a Renaissance painting that depicts Venus being born out of sea foam onto a sea shell and other gods and goddesses are bringing her clothing. We can see that this is a Renaissance painting because it is realistic. It is realistic because there is light, depth, perspective, expression throughout the piece. Light is shown through the sun. Depth is also shown through shadows on Venus’s face, shadows on the other people’s faces, and shadows in the background. There are shadows on the shell, the sky, the sea, the ground, and the trees. Perspective is shown because of how Venus is front and center in the painting and how the other gods and goddesses around her and how there are things in the background

The planet Venus is a terrestrial planet, meaning it has a rocky and solid surface. The surface is covered in thousands of volcanoes, sizing from very small to gigantic sized ones. The volcanoes are all over the planet, and in no apparent patterns, meaning there isn't tectonic plate activity like we have on Earth. Interestingly, these volcanoes aren't as explosive as they would be on Earth, presumably due to the thickness of the atmosphere of Venus. Instead the volcanoes on Venus seemed to just have liquid lava flows. While it is possible that most of the volcanoes are either dead or dormant, there may be some active volcanic activity on Venus. Among the surface volcanoes of Venus are very few impact craters from meteors. This is because thickness