Venus of Willendorf - Naturhistorisches Museum Wien,
What is the meaning behind these little feminine statutes discovered through out Europe from the Upper Palaeolitic Age?
I first came across the Venus of Willendorf in a Natural Museum in Vienna. These little feminine statutes have been discovered on archeological digs throughout Europe. They are believed to have been made around 25,000 years ago.
“Venus of Willendorf, Upper Paleolithic female figurine found in 1908 at Willendorf, Austria. 11 cm high made of limestone around estimated to be made around 25000 years ago”
According to the Natural Museum literature; “A remarkable amount of similar finds at other places indicate the existence of a highly developed art tradition represented by more than 100 samples of such statuettes mostly worked from stone, ivory, distributed from the West (France, Italy). Over Middle Europe to Siberia.”
It has been suggested that these feminine carvings are a fertility figure, a good-luck totem, a mother goddess symbol. The scientists who studied the figurines beleive that they were imbued with spiritual significance. No one knows for sure but it certainly impressed upon me the reverence our early ancestors had for the feminine.
See the painting in the printable art collection.