The Venus of Willendorf

Just thought I'd share one of my Contextual Studies 100-200 word analysis pieces for college. Each week we do a written word piece on an image of an artwork by an artist to improve our technical word skills.

Analysis:

The Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture of a human female at a relatively small 4 1/2 inches in size and assumed to be produced by hunter-gatherers (a term used to decribe the life all humans lived until roughly 8,000 years ago who hunted game and collected plant food - 'foraging'). The purose behind this work is a fertility figure (expression of desire to have children and used a s a form of promotion for fertility).

Carved possibly by flint tools and from a type of oolitic limestone not of the area where it was found (Anube River, Austria). The time period is thought to be around 24,000-22,000 B.C.E and of the Upper Paleolithic time frame.

The form is a figure but is an abstract representation of a female as it is not a general perception but an artist's vision of their appearance.

I like the unusal shapes of the figure and its different style of 3D rendering (the proportions are warped/out of shape), these make the sculpture unique in quality.

Information Sources:
http://archaeology.about.com/od/hterms/g/hunter_gather.htm - Hunter-gatherer definition.
http://www.asu.edu/cfa/wwwcourses/art/SOACore/Willendorf_portfolio.htm - Venus of Willendorf information.
http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/venus/ - Venus of Willendorf information.
http://clevelandart.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/collection-highlight-fertility-figure/ - Fertility figure information.

http://tomreeder.wordpress.com/2009/03/ -Image source.