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.
Nice thoughts on the topic, Kyle. It sounds like you are interested in this sculpture because it is so old - and not necessarily because the statue is aesthetically pleasing to you. Am I right? Do you mind having the "Venus" title for the statue, even if our view of "beauty" is different from other standards of beauty? (That being said, we don't even know if prehistoric people found their figurines to be "beautiful," do we?) Beauty is a cultural construct.
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Do you think that being obese in the time the Venus of Willendorf was sculpted had to do with being seen as rich, in a sense that this person had enough food to support themselves and relatives? You mentioned that beauty today is not being obese, so I just thought that maybe it was the time frame you were thinking about.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of good ideas. I don't think it would be easy to be that large so long ago with how much effort it must have taken for people to find food. And eating only natural food (unlike our processed delicious food) would probably influence a diet and way the body would look. I think our modern idea of beauty definitely influences the way that we see this piece of art, though our ideas are all different on what we find to be beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI like your reasoning as to why we talk about this figurine. I agree that we talk about her because we don’t know much about her. It piques our curiosity, so we try to figure out why she was made.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that, assuming the person who carved her did so as a thing of beauty, his/her idea of beauty was different than ours today. Of course it could have been carved for a different reason, like the article suggests fertility; but like you said, we will never know for sure.
I enjoyed your take on how controversial the figurine is and why we are talking about it for class. I liked how you touched on the fact that "brings up and topics of historical humans and what type of people they may have been." It really makes you think how and if people have changed in the last 30,000 years. The name "Venus of Willendorf" was not coined until its discovery in 1908; at this time, beauty was already in the minds as skinnier women. So, the statuette could have many interpretations of what it was used for. Since society has associated the figure with Venus, all we have now is to see her that way.
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