Admittedly, I never truly looked at amazing pieces of Art. I recently did research on two interesting pieces of Paleolithic art, The Venus of Willendorf and The Venus of Laussel. It was fascinating to learn about each piece of art and what the story is behind each one. Archaeologist Josef Szombathy found a unique masterpiece in 1908, The Venus of Willendorf. Joesef found the sculpture near the town of Willendorf in Austria. The incredible sculpture must have been created somewhere else due to the fact that the Venus of Willendorf was created from a type of oolitic limestone that is not found in the region (L. C. E. Witcombe).
The interesting sculpture’s characteristics are remarkable. The approximate measurement of the statuette is eleven centimeters in height and four centimeters in width. The masterpiece was created out of yellow limestone as well as tinted red by traces of ochre. When someone looks at the statuette, they see a short female as well as features you would see on a female, drooping breasts, a large belly, as well as a pronounced buttock. The sculpture is a great representation of a heavily overweight woman. The masterpiece does not have any facial features and the head is almost completely covered by a braided pattern.
The belly button and vulva are clearly defined. The woman’s feet appear to be broken off. The statuette is interesting to people because of its representation of obesity. It was interesting to learn that the sculptor must have worked from a model due to the lack of food and the unlikely presence of heavily overweight females. Some people feel that the body shape of the statuette may have been ritualized. The Venus of Willendorf is located in the Natural History Museum in Vienna and is a part of the permanent collection of rock art (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF STONE AGE ART).
In 1911, The Venus of Laussel was found by J. G Lalann. J. G. Lalanne found the interesting carving in the commune of Marquay, in the Dordogne region of Southwestern France. (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF STONE AGE ART, n. d. ). The masterpiece is called the carved relief of a Venus. The intriguing carving consists of a comprehensive picture of a woman’s overweight body that lacks features for her face. The detailed, creative carving was carved onto a limestone block that had fallen from the wall of the Laussel cave in Marquay in the Dordogne Valley of France.
A small amount of red ochre was found on the sculpture, and some people believe that the sculpture was coated in red ochre when it was found. The height of the masterpiece is approximately 1. 5 foot high. The details of the woman’s body consist of large breasts, belly and thighs, detailed genitals, and an unclear or decayed head with what looks to be long hair. The sculpture shows that the woman’s left hand is placed on her belly, and her right hand holds what looks to be a big horn core of a bison. The interesting horn core has thirteen vertical lines carved onto it.
The woman’s unclear face appears to be glancing at the core. Some people believe that the object the Venus is holding is a crescent moon and the thirteen stripes cut into the object are an explicit reference to the annual lunar cycle. Some people feel that the masterpiece is referencing fertility due to the crescent moon, as well as the Venus resting her hand on a large belly. I found it interesting that the tallies on the crescent are sometimes referred to the number of times in a woman’s life that she has experienced having a menstrual cycle.
Some people think that the tally marks on the horn might illustrate a hunter’s log of how many animals they slaughtered. The horn on the masterpiece is an emblem of food or abundance (Hirst, n. d. ). It was interesting to learn the differences and the similarities of both sculptures. One of the differences is that The Venus of Willendorf was created out of a yellow limestone as well as tinted red by traces of ochre. The Venus of Laussel was carved onto a limestone block. A similarity is that both sculptures were made out of some type of limestone.
Both masterpieces consist of an overweight woman with large breasts, as well as a head with no facial features. The head on the Venus of Willendorf is almost completely covered by a braided pattern. The head on the Venus of Laussel is unclear or decayed and has what looks to be long hair. Another difference is that the overweight woman in the Venus of Laussel has her left hand on her belly, making me think she may be pregnant. It is fascinating to look at the differences and similarities of both sculptures, it makes me wonder how similar the artists are.