"Venus" of Cussac
From: National Geographic, August 2001 Photo: Yanik Le Guillou Painting in Chauvet Cave with human female legs, hips and pubic triangle but with the head and torso of a bison. It is referred to as "the sorcerer". (Venus?)
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15 comments:
The photos I have posted here are a jumping off point for your commentary...you can take the discussion wherever you like...
Ok so they were involved in witchcraft. That might be why they carve those women...as a voodoo practice or might just be good luck charms. I don't think we will ever figure out why they made the women. Could have been a version of their own goddess? Never ending...
Maybe they were used for educational purposes?.. These dolls were carved to show what will happen to a women when she becomes pregnant to to know that another person is their way....
I am beginning to really lean toward this possible idea of worshipping woman and the female form. All through our more resent past females have been looked down upon as quite useless and unintelligent. I mean really, woman weren't allowed to vote and such things as women getting an education or a job was almost unheard of. With so many female forms drawn and carved in this time it seems very likely that females were anything but devalued. I think that even our founding fathers could have taken a page from this culture. :)
What amazes me about the Kostenki figurine is what remains of the artifact is 5.5 inches tall. It's apparent that both the upper and lower portions are missing, so it makes me wonder how large the figurine truly was compared to the "Woman of Willendorf". Other characteristics that were brought to my attention were the bracelets and arm placement. With this specific "Venus", the arms are placed on the stomach, which might signify protection of the child. As far as the bracelets are concerned, both figurines have them, although this one seems to be "chained down" in a sense. I'm not sure if this was a cultural difference between Russia and Austria of the time (I highly doubt it), but the artist wanted to make sure that it was a dominant feature.
http://donsmaps.com/ukrainevenus.html
Considering how I have commented on the venus pieces i figured I would post a blog about Stonehenge. Stonehenge is definitely one of earths greater mysteries due to the magnitude of the structure and the lack of history. I've always wondered how they were able to construct something this large so long ago. This also makes me think of easter island and the many stone figures throughout the land. Maybe we'll never know, but that is why they are so interesting. There was also a little info on stonehenge at this site: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html
I think it's really interesting that the drawings portray the women as having more body fat than they maybe had. It seems like they really beheld overweightness as a form of beauty that was admired. They probably thought that women were interesting and sketched them as a way to express that. I do think that it gave them some kind of comfort like a goddess would. Maybe that's kind of the reason behind their reverance for the drawings. Women were a symbol of life and comfort.
Retro Clide said...
The Venus of Cussac looks like the lost member of Matisse’s painting La Danse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dance_%28painting%29). Okay, so Matisse’s dancers are a bit more realistic. That’s beside the point for my basis of this argument. As in the Venus of Cussac, there is a lack of true-to-form representation of the human body in La Danse. Matisse’s work does have a more realistic human appearance than the Venus does; however, there remains an abstract quality to the piece. It’s as if Matisse is carrying on a long held tradition of representing the human body without mimicking it. The Venus a representation of a woman’s body represents the ability of the person(s) who created the image ability to think in an abstracted representational manner. Wasn’t it Matisse’s intention to represent people dancing, not to give a mirror image for people dancing? His interpretation of people dancing is an example of creative genius. I see carving to be an example of creative genius, too. So, in the words of Gloria Estefan, "Come on and turn the beat around..."
anything round is about hardest thing to carve out of stone by hand. It take percise movement of any tool that you are using to make the object round and not jig jagged or pointed, maybe this was a sign of skill to show that they could make round objects instead of just squares, and what better then to use a female body which is rounded in the sense in many different stages of their life.
Childbirth mortality rates must have been poor given the lack of knowledge for prenatal care and birth techniques. I would guess these were some sort of charm or idol to help a safe birth for mother and child.
National Geographic talks about the significance of the caves, and why they are important. "For decades scholars had theorized that art had advanced in slow stages from primitive scratchings to lively, naturalistic renderings. Surely the subtle shading, ingenious use of perspective, and elegant lines of Chauvet’s masterworks placed them at the pinnacle of that progression. Then carbon dates came in, and prehistorians reeled. Approximately twice as old as those in the more famous caves, Chauvet’s images represented not the culmination of prehistoric art but its earliest known beginnings.” So this would mean that the people who created the art in the caves were not only ahead of their time but amoung the first artists in the world. So looking at this we can see how art was actually started. But in comparison looking at art today, we can see how far we’ve come.
oh yeah the site is:
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/html/ft_20010801.6.html
this post has been graded.
It seems like in most of the pictures and sculptures the women have certain features emphasized. Mainly the features of a pregnant woman. I think that they looked up to the pregnant women because they were the ones haveing the kids. I really doubt anyone will ever find out the true meaning of the figures, maybe the people made the figurines for that very reason. Just to keep people of the future guessing.
I think whoever carved these "venus" women was havin one of those cave illusions.
No.... I think people looked up to bigger women back then. Afterall, in some countries your body size represents your financial status and wealth. Or maybe the people carved the pregnant women because they thought the female reproduction system and pregnancies were fascinating because they didn't know how it all worked ???
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