The Venus Willendorf and Laussel

The Venus of Willendorf can be a considered a landmark of the Paleolithic Era for various reasons. For one, it is not native to its land. It is unknown as to where it was originally created. Whenever it was found in 1908 researchers discovered that the statue was made of a type of limestone that was not native to that area, which led them to conclude that it had been brought to that particular area. Secondly, some experts believe that the statue gives a clear indication of what the people of that time worshiped. Some researches found that many people during the time worshiped the Venus of Willendorf as a fertility goddess.

1. Venus figurines: Figurines carved to depict a female's body. These figurines often exaggerated the female's body parts such as the breast, buttocks, hips, and the stomach. The figurines were usually carved from stone, antlers, mammoth tusks, or baked clay. These figurines have convinced some scholars that Paleolithic thought had a strongly feminine dimension.

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.

The Venus of Willendorf was found in 1908 by a workman named “Johann Veran” (Selen). It was found by archeologists at a Paleolithic site. Here at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, we have the only authentic Venus Figurine (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). The artifact’s purpose is still being speculated by many. But from what I can infer, the figurine was used a a maternal figure, and it shows the richness of female fertility.

With works in every known medium, from every part of the world, throughout all points in history, exploring the vast collection of the Museum of Modern Art was an overwhelming experience. The objects in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts are an important historical collection, reflecting the development of a number of art forms in Western Europe. The department's holdings covered sculpture in many sizes, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, jewelry, and tapestries. The gallery attracted my appreciation of the realistic qualities of the human body often portrayed in sculpture.

Across, Europe at various archeological sites, archaeologist most famous artifacts found is the Woman (Venus of Willendorf). For the most part, it showed that an early civilization of the Upper Paleolithic period, and the practice of their ritual, and creating sculptural arts and cave drawing. During, they ‘re moment across Europe following the herds of animal during the changing seasons. Accordingly, scholars, believe the Woman (Venus of Willendorf) found in Austria dating from 22,000 to 21,000 BCE, (Paleolithic pg. 6). However, the 4 to 5 inches sculptural artifact found would be used for religious and spiritual influence, and the female figurines imagery suggests they have been marilined, were the line of descent is through the woman in

The Venus of Willendorf figurines, or also know as “Woman of Willendorf”, were originally founded at a paleolithic site near Willendorf. Willendorf is a “village in lower Austria near the city of Krems.”(Mugadona). The sculptor put an emphasis on the female body parts when creating these figurines. Specifically parts that associate with being pregnant and bearing a child. With these distinguished markings it is believed to represent a fertility goddess. Many of the figures that were found are female. From this you can draw a conclusion that females were highly regarded in their culture, and that bearing a child was important. “Venus” is known as the goddess of love and beauty, since most of the statues are woman that could be a physical symbol

The sculpture that we have observed has been dated to the first half of the first century C.E. This places the portrait during the Julio-Claudian period in Roman history. From the information we have gathered about the time period, the woman's style of dress and of the types of sculpture prevelant during the period, we have formed a possible profile of the daily life of the subject.

This paper will discuss relative points and insights relating to sculpture of the Paleolithic era, specifically the Venus of Willendorf, through the essays of Christopher Witcombe.

Our world is full of so many grandiose monuments, eye-catching sculptures, and stunning statues, each having an individual story to tell. Thousands of them have been created however, only a small number of them are actually extraordinary and picture-worthy. This paper will compare and contrast two of those picture-worthy sculptures. Furthermore, I will examine the aspects of each of these sculptures. I will compare and contrast what each of them represents, the differences in texture, their size and their tone.

the top of her breasts. Also, she doesn’t have eyes, nose, ears, and the mouth remains

Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and Mars is a tempera and oil painting on poplar panel, illustrating a scene from the classical mythology story of Venus and Mars, who are engaging in a love affair with each other. The painting was made during the Renaissance, around 1485. It’s dimensions are 69.2 × 173.4 cm and it is currently located at The National Gallery in London, room 58 (Nationalgallery.org.uk, n.d.)

Though both figures express the same body shape and emphasis on sex, they both come from very different places. Venus was found in Austria around 28,000 – 25,000 BCE, while Dolni came from the Czech Republic and dates to 29,000 – 25,000 BCE. Though their distance may be somewhat apart, their dates fall pretty close together. In chapter three I am looking at the Palette of King Narmer. It looks to be some type of plaque with a king or god conquering an enemy. There are many animals on the stone like birds, bulls, and cats. When I saw the images I thought it was two pieces, but it’s really one piece with both sides engraved. The sculpture is from Hierakonpolis dating from 3000 BCE and is 25 inches tall. The stone used is known as slate. My assumption about the image was right; it’s an Egyptian king standing on his enemies. You can tell he’s a king by his scale and size to others in the image. The back of the palette shows the king, Naram, with bulls and two animals each roped in by male figures with their necks forming a circle. The palette combines symbols from both Upper and Lower Egypt. The bull represents the king’s attacks on a city as it

The sculptures and paint show details how society viewed and interpreted women body, sexuality, and maternity. In addition, revealed that these women were protected from threats around them with ornaments. Civilizations since early times, believed that we were in permanent threat from forces we do not see or cannot explain and because of it, we protected ourselves with artificial elements in a form of jewelry, crowns or caps. This idea has been continue from one generation to the next to the point that in modern societies some of us still use this type of protection in our bodies (e.g., small cross, divine images, tattoos, etc.).These pieces of art also indicate that humans believed in gods with superpowers and they are looking over us constantly. Humanity also believes in dark forces or demons trying to makes us do things that would upset the good gods. Some of the differences between these sculptures and paint are the material in which each one of them were created. The first figure, the Woman of Willendorf was carved in limestone, the second piece, the portrait of Queen Tiye was carved in wood and the last piece, the Virgin and Child Icon was created of tempera on a wood. You can also notice how the details on their faces and bodies changes throughout the time and years. The woman of Willendorf figurine offers details of a voluptuous nude women’s body but there is not face, or feet. Queen Tiye statue shows the face of a woman in detail closed to the gods but without any body parts and lastly The Virgin and Child Icon, is an expression of divinity of the views, reflections and beliefs from the gospel. Because communities started to innovate on the art of carving and painting, populations began to discover and/or create art with the objective of expressing different purposes of our daily lives, such as the beauty of a woman’s body, or to commemorate an ancient

Sculpture: Very few of their sculptures are around today, but the most famous is the Woman of Willendorf, which is thought to have a connection to fertility.