From the oldest identified pieces of art to those created during the modern era, the depiction of the human figure has played a monumental role in conveying the ideals, desires, and creeds of the artists that created them. Whether the human figure displayed the artist’s view of "perfection" i.e., a young handsome man with an athletic build or the frailty of a subject i.e., a venerable woman grimacing in pain, art concentrating upon a body reflects the thought of not only artists but also provides some insight from the nation, culture, sect, or time period from which the artists came from. An example can be found in the form of a marble sculpture simply referred to as the "Steatopygous female figure" which has been determined to have been constructed during the Final Neolithic period, ca. 4500–4000 B.C., by those of the Cycladic civilization. Another paradigm is the "The Birth Of Venus", painted in France in the year of 1863, by Alexandre Cabanel (French, 1823–1889) exhibiting Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, but originally a vegetation goddess and patroness of gardens and vineyards. Later, under Greek influence, she was equated with Aphrodite and assumed many of her aspects.
Although, the "Steatopygous female figure" sculpture was made over six millennia ago, it is not the first if it's kind. Akin to this piece of work, several sculptures have been discovered and estimated to go as far back as 25,000 and 12,000 years ago, the Upper Paleolithic or Late Stone Age period, and are known as "Venus figurines" which were also made of stone. These "Venus figurines" are rather homogenous to the "Steatopygous female figure" as a majority of these statues portray females with the genetic characteristics of steatopygia...
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... of the "Steatopygous female figure" due to it being created during a time period where historical documentation was not common practice a popular theories infer that it was used as either an idol to encourage fertility of the woman of the era or as a medium of pornographic connotations. In contrast, "The Birth Of Venus" embodies the ideals of a time period where Venus is considered a goddess in only a mythological sense and only represents beauty in aesthetic terms. Nevertheless, Venus still signifies unattainable perfection with her natural immunity from human flaws embodying unparalleled magnetism. Though, the time gap between these two pieces of art span almost six millennia they both stimulated a feeling of grand reverence of the perfect female figure not unlike the sex symbols of the modern era that many look to as the definition of the "perfect" human figure.
As time kept passing, more and more magnificent sculptures were made by numerous artists. One of the most memorable sculpture was Aphrodite of Knidos, goddess of love and beauty. Back in the Late Classical Period, the civilians were only used to seeing ideal male nude bodies, but Praxiteles decided to make a different approach and sculpted the first female nude. Because he obviously had never seen a goddess before, he used his imagination and sculpted bathing Aphrodite as humanlike possible. He did not make it look idealistic, but instead made it beautiful with flaws.
Venus is a term that has long been associated with artwork, most specifically the classical forms of beautiful women. The term Venus has also come to represent female sculptures of the Paleolithic era. The most notable of these female sculptures is the Venus of Willendorf, 24,000-22,000 BCE. The age of the figurine has been changed several times. Originally when found the date was estimated to be 15,000 to 10,000 BCE. During the 1970’s the time period was adjusted to 25,000 to 20,000 BCE; the date was again recalculated in the 1980’s to 30,000 to 25,000 BCE; the most recent estimate of age was in the 1990’s and was placed at 24,000 to 22,000 BCE after scientific research was performed on the rock stratification. This statuette was discovered by Josef Szombathy in 1908 near the town of Willendorf, Austria, in an Aurignacian loess deposit, which loosely defined is a yellow brown loamy geological deposit dating to the Paleolithic period. The name Venus was first associated with the figurine as a joke. The small, crudely carved statuette of an obese woman contrasts heavily from the graceful classical forms of sculpture such as Aphrodite of Cnidos, Praxiteles, 350 BCE. Although it would be difficult to associate the word beautiful with this statuette, there can be no doubt that it reflects the female form. The statuette has also been known as “la poire” or “the pear” due to its size and shape and more recently was donned the Woman from Willendorf. The removal of the title Venus served to take away the figurine’s status of goddess and lower it to the human level, therefore allowing more consideration of the figurine’s purpose (Witcombe, sec. 3).
It offers and understanding that women were held at a different standard then than they are now. This figurine shows that women had a larger mid-section but was because they either needed the body fat for long, cold winters or the better idea was because it showed they were fertile and they were able to produce babies and keep the legacy going on. It also provides a better image of what the men and women had to go through in order to survive, like the long hard winters, the needing to hunt for food and could mean sometimes not having food. Venus of Willendorf was not considered an obese women, “where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable”, (PBS, 2006). I can use this article because it explains the whole point about a women’s image. Women were not looked at how skinny and “good looking” they were in a pair of jeans. Women, in this time, were looked at as if they can be fertile or not. Being able to have children was a huge thing in this time since it was one of the point of living, to have a
It is determined the Antonine Woman as Venus is a woman of aristocratic status. The portrait is made of fine-grain marble, a medium only upper-class persons could afford. Also, only persons of wealth could afford to have such a protrait made. The woman is portrayed as Venus, a goddess who is connected to the imperial family, and members of a royal family would often have themselves depicted as a deity. (De Puma 26) We know she is being portrayed as Venus because of her bare breast and the upper-arm ring. The bare breast is a key to Venus because she is the goddess of sexuality and desirability. The upper arm ring can be an attribute of Venus as the Statue of Aphrodite (Venus) by Praxiletels displays the same jewelry on a nude body. (Fantham 175)
Ca.630 BCE. Limestone. This is a women freestanding statue in Greek art. Both of these two statues are youth sculpture and freestanding which are the naturalistically and not stocky. They do not have muscles and a strong body, I can only see they are being the lean body types. As the female statue, her feet are standing on the same level, but the male one is not. She is putting her right hand on her chest and wearing clothes to wrap her slim body. Thus, the Greek art only has little bit impact by Egyptians. Portraying nude men can be accepted, but for women it is not.
Prior to the 20th century, female artists were the minority members of the art world (Montfort). They lacked formal training and therefore were not taken seriously. If they did paint, it was generally assumed they had a relative who was a relatively well known male painter. Women usually worked with still lifes and miniatures which were the “lowest” in the hierarchy of genres, bible scenes, history, and mythological paintings being at the top (Montfort). To be able to paint the more respected genres, one had to have experience studying anatomy and drawing the male nude, both activities considered t...
The Venus of Willendorf was believed to be created 25,000 years ago, is none-freestanding sculpture and is sculpted out of oolitic limestone. The subject matter, I believe it to convey a fertility figure for men and woman to gaze upon. The Venus of Willendorf is a none-freestanding female nude stature, which is an 11 centimeters high, made out of oolitic limestone and now resides in Naturhistorisches Museum. She was found in 1908 in Austria in a village called Willendorf. The stature has been carved out of oolitic limestone and has been given a red ochre tint. This small oolitic limestone figure representing a woman in the nude has no known artist and no information on why it was created. I believe that
The Archaic Period (600-590 B.C.) is the start of a transformation headed for a more realistic representation of the human form. One type of sculpture that surfaced in this period is the korai, sculptures of women dressed in draped clothing representative of ancient Greek attire. Kore (maiden), can be seen at the Louvre in Paris, dated 630 B.C. and to most likely be from Crete. Another important sculpture of the period is known as the New York Kuoros (Youth) is a depiction of a nude young man, dated around 600-590 B.C. and can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum. Although the sculptures look stiffly frontal like in Egyptian art, their figures have a more naturalistic approach.
The Venus of Willendorf and the Venus de Milo are two ancient day venus sculptures representing two different views on beauty. The Venus of Willendorf is a small 4.5 inch limestone figure of a Goddess which is believed to be used as a fertility symbol, while the Venus de Milo is a tall ancient Greek statue of a Goddess which is said to represent love and beauty. The Venus of Willendorf’s body structure is very different than that of Venus de Milo. The venus of Willendorf appears to be a short lady with a large emphasis on her reproductive organs, breasts and stomach area whereas the Venus de Milo appears to be very tall with smaller breasts, and a really athletic build. She appears to have abs and looks as if she has not had children before, while the Venus of Willendorf looks like she has had children due to her huge breasts and stretched out belly button. The Venus
In his book Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway says that, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature” (153). This statement is only partially correct. The writer of a novel should certainly have the ultimate goal of creating living persons as opposed to two-dimensional characters. However, Hemingway mistakenly sets up an equivalence of character and caricature in an attempt to highlight the difference between a character and a living person. It does not follow necessarily that being a caricature negates the possibility of also being a living person. To clarify this idea, more meaningful conceptions of the terms living person, character, and caricature must be established.
Greek art that can be accredited to Plato for creating. Among them was the "Perfect" figure
The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest sculptures of the body made by humans during the Paleolithic era. She was made from limestone native to her location and covered with red orche. Despite standing only 4.4 inches, the purpose of the Venus of Willendorf is widely debated. Some will say the exaggerated breasts, navel, and vulva connects her to fertility as a representation of a mother goddess. Others, such as those in my class, believe her to be a figure of body image. The stumpy female figure features hanging breasts, an obese middle and belly, and distinct buttocks in all, represents a realistic form of a severely overweight woman. Due to the hash ice-age environment of where she’s from leads one to believe fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. Whether the sculpture was based on a fantasy or a real life model the infatuations with the idea of self-acceptance through body
Venus in Botticelli's painting is a Renaissance beauty. During the Renaissance women were believed to look more attractive if they had some weight to them. It was believed that this weight make them more prepared for child birth, and basically healthier. Venus has weight in the painting. Without this weight I do not feel that she would have such a strong impact on her viewers. Another strong point of Venus's presence is her wonderful long and flowing red-orange hair. It flows around her body keeping her pose modest, yet revealing. In all of this beauty it can be easy to overlook the unnatural length of Venus's neck, and the steep fall of her shoulders. Venus's outline is wonderfully graceful, and it is the grace that makes the print so wholesome and beautiful. If Botticelli would have chosen a slimmer or less natural Venus the harmony of the picture would have been destroyed.
Body Image is one of the most crucial topics America has developed over the years. It is based off of the way an individual sees themselves or think people see the way their body looks and this might not completely be equevalent . In the United States, it is not uncommon for a person to feel like they need to fit in with society and the way people are portrayed. Without very little realization, the effects of being obsessed with a certain look can be drastic to ourselves, it becomes like a disease which eventually can lead to potential drastic measures. Body Image is sometimes influenced by the people that surround us. Since we are around them most of the time, they have a huge importance, for instance, if you have a friend who is
Even the few sculptor’s names known to us, usually by chance, from the imperial period are Greek names and seem to confirm the assumption that these artists’ work should be regarded simply as a late phase of Greek art” (Hanfmann, 12). The Greeks were the first western culture to figure out how to accurately depict the human form which they did through the use of geometric ratios. It is also widely accepted that it was even Greek artists who first made marble portraits for the Romans as the Romans originally had no skill with the stone. “It was certainly at first Greek artists who were entrusted by eminent Romans with the execution of portraits of themselves and of important personalities in the Roman state, just as it was Greeks who depicted Aemilius Paulus victory at Pydna and later were largely responsible for the portraits of the emperors” (Kahler 16). The Romans mainly used terracotta for their sculptures and it was only when Augustus reigned that the marble quarries at Carrara were opened and marble was used on a large scale. The Romans inherited the use of realistic proportions, the sense of movement (contrapposto), and the overall beauty of Greek sculptures. A great example of Roman sculpture that was clearly carved by a Greek artist who was familiar with the Hellenistic styles of Greece, is the Relief of the Wedding of Amphitrite and Neptune. It “shows a mythological