At first glance when looking at the “Venus of Willendorf,” I questioned myself as to why we are researching and talking about this sculpture. Reading on in the article I realized why it is important and a good learning spot to start for the history of art. Being around 26 thousand years old and having a sculpture so well defined and small looks pretty amazing. Not only that, but as well the controversial subjects it brings up and topics of historical humans and what type of people they may have been. Sexuality seems to be the largest area of conversation with this figure, thinking about whether the sculpture of this woman is meant as an idol, a sign of fertility, or a sculpture of someone who once lived and the artist used as a model in making this work of art.
The fact that we know so little about this figure is the exact reason why we talk about it. The author is unknown, the time period has somewhat been determined but was changed many times after further scientific research. In debating this figure every subject can be brought up, do to how little we know about not only the figure, but also how little we know about the people from this time and age in the world. Because of the plumpness of the figure, it brings to question, is this what people in that time period looked like? Was there something special about the way this figure was made because of the thinking that most hunter gatherers were skinny do to their diet, or is there something that through time was lost in the knowledge of these primitive humans and they all looked similar to this figure in the place of the world it was created? All these questions and thoughts will most likely never be answered, unless, we had a time machine to go back and observe these early humans. To be honest and real with ourselves, it is not going to happen.
The name of this figure “Venus,” seems to be out of place to us in the modern age because of the Greek goddess Venus who is known for her sexual love and beauty. But looking back into times before that we see that the name Venus was also given to other ivory sculptures of whom were missing limbs and also were figures of nude woman. This word to the modern human seems wrong for the figure of Willendorf because of our concept of beauty and attractive sexuality. Figures of the same nature more presently are presented as thin and athletic, not the “obese” look we get from the primitive figure, thus bringing the question of how these primitive beings may have viewed beauty. The author of this article sees the beauty of this sculpture as a fertile beauty and beauty of its time, as the Venus of the Greek and Roman era was their style of beauty, so is this the beauty of its time period. Today our view of beauty is most always viewed as sexually and loving beauty, a healthy person with good skin, little to no fat, proportional, clean, rich, and also in the way a person carries themselves and their presence. From what we can see, the beauty of our time and the primitive ages has a vast difference.
