Stone, height 4 3/8 inch Museum of Natural History, Vienna. History of Western Art Pre-Historic Art Venus of Willendorf c. 25000-20000 B.C. Stone, height 4 3/8 inch Museum of Natural History, Vienna.

Venus of Willendorf Introduction: It is during the last stage of the Paleolithic (relating to early part of stone age) which began about 35000 years ago, that we meet the earliest works of art known to us. But these already show an assurance and refinement far removed from any humble beginnings .We must assume that they were preceded by thousands of years of slow growth about which we know nothing at all

Venus of Willendorf Apart from large-scale cave art, the men of the Upper Paleolithic also produced small hand-sized drawings and carvings in bone, horn or stone, skillfully cut by means of flint tools. Some of these carvings suggest that the objects may have originated with the recognition and elaboration of some chance or resemblance.

Venus of Willendorf At an earlier stage, it seems, Stone Age men were content to collect pebbles (as well as less durable small specimens) in whose natural shape they saw something that rendered them “magic”; echoes of this approach can sometimes be felt in later, more fully worked pieces.

Venus of Willendorf Thus the so-called Venus of Willendorf in Austria one of many such female fertility figurines, has a bulbous roundness of form recalls an egg-shaped “sacred pebble”, her naval, the central point of design, is a natural cavity in the stone.