VENUS OF WILLENDORF

This sculpture is titled Venus of Willendorf. It is found in Willendorf,

Austria; in the Natural History Museum, Vienna. This figurine was made in
c. 25000 BC. It is an 11.1-centimeter-tall Venus figurine. Roughly 80 more
Venus figurines exist as fragments or partial figures.
By looking at Venus of Willendorf, it’s pretty clear that it’s a figure of a
nude female, with an unusual head/face. The appearance of the sculpture
is pretty rough and probably worn out over time. The appearance also
suggests that it was made of oolitic limestone tinted with red ochre
pigment. If we talk about the specifics of this figure, it has a super short
neck with short legs and no feet, along with exaggerated breasts,
stomach and thighs, paired with a lean upper torso and extremely thin
hands extending over the breasts with very unclear fingers.
It was often made as a way of imitating the world around them, and the
Paleolithic people who created this, made with great proficiency and with a particular interest in aesthetics. It was
intended as a fertility sculpture. The people who built this statue lived in a harsh ice-age world where fat and fertility
characteristics would have been extremely desirable. The artist took particular care to emphasize her breasts, which some
scholars suggest indicates that she is able to nurse a child. And we can learn that these Paleolithic people had an
awareness of the importance of women. The most common material used to carve these statuettes is mammoth tusk,
teeth, antlers, bone, and stone.
Venus of Willendorf is a piece of art that was also considered as a good luck totem by the ancient people in 24,000 B.C.E.
They use to think this sculpture attracts our good luck and few considered it spiritual too, so in the contemporary time
good luck totem is also used in different religions and they are considered an essential element of their spiritual life. In this
21st century still, people are using such totems related to Venus of Willendorf. This shows that how these ancient art
pieces affect the contemporary period and how its beauty is still alive. ‘It has been suggested that she is a fertility figure, a
good-luck totem, a mother goddess symbol.’

Bibliography:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/prehistoric-art/paleolithic/paleolithic-objects/a/venus-of-willendorf
https://smarthistory.org/venus-of-willendorf/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Venus-of-Willendorf
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-of-willendorf.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENAZqOoOVaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuvABEvig0A
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/venus-figurines-obesity-1928873
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf
Group 9:
Youmna Adnan
Syed Hasan Ali Qadri
Simal Aftab
Taha Muhammad Faisal