Venus Of Willendorf: Gorham's Cave Art

The Venus of Willendorf Sculpture was made in 24,000- 22,000, Before the Common Era (BCE), the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age, which was the longest phase of human history. The Paleothic Period was made up of nomadic hunters and gathers that were sheltered in caves, used fire, and stones for tools. A fun fact about this discovery is that it is the earliest pieces of prehistoric sculpture that has ever been found. It was made by hand, made of limestone, has a height of 11cm and was found in Willendorf, Austria. When looking at this piece, you would probably see the female reproductive anatomy that has been a bit exaggerated. Therefore, experts believe that it represented a fertility symbol where a male hunter carried this sculpture in remembrance of his mate back home.

A prehistoric painting that was created before the Venus Willendorf was Gorham’s Cave Art which was made in 37,000 BCE. This art piece is Abstract Rock Engravings in Gorham 's Cave, Gibraltar. An interesting fact is that it is the earliest art of its type in the world. The

This art piece is very similar to the Gorham’s Cave Art and is slightly similar to the Venus of Willendorf. One noticeable similarity is Gormham’s Cave also used sharp stones to carve images and used the same technique of cross hatching. However, the Venus of Willendorf was similar to the La Pileta because of the use of sharp stones to carve images. The difference between my selected works is the fact that the La Pileta Cave consisted of 60 animal figures and some 50 serpent drawings. The animal figures and serpent drawings were created with yellow paintings followed by red and black charcoal.

Unlike the Gorham’s Cave where it just had cross hatching and geometric patterns, the La Pileta had spirals, zig-zags, cross hatchings and other geometric