Analysis Of Woman From Willendorf

Often in classical art we see images of women who are thin, pale and vulnerable. When I came across the image of Woman from Willendorf I was immediately attracted to her shapely figure. Unfortunately in art this is a shape this is labeled as glutinous and lazy. However the woman form Willendorf was commonly known as a figure that represents fertility and brings forth such luck to those who are in possession of her. She is very curvatious, having wide hips, large breasts, a round stomach and thick thighs. This figure unfortunately shows no face, very little fragment of arms and no feet. My interest immediately sparked at seeing this wonderful show of what I consider a natural woman figure, as I do tend to love seeing examples of shapely women in art.

The text describes her as having exaggerated features. I found this description offensive because of its suggestion that woman are not naturally that shape when in fact women all around the world are. In many African cultures and other cultures around the world a curvatious woman was a sign of wealth and abundancy. At one point the woman from Willendorf was better known as Venus of Willendorf. Venus, the Roman goddess of love was more commonly depicted as pale and slim and since the Woman from Willendorf is the polar opposite of that she could not be associated with that same name. In my opinion this is also because the curves of the woman from Willendorf more possibly depicts a woman of color as we are the ones that tend to be more shapely. This was also another reason why I feel that the name Venus was taken out of her name. They probably wanted very little association of a woman of color being a Goddess let alone Venus herself. I’m sure that since Romans were constantly trying to depict themselves as close to God like as possible this was why they chose to strip her of her Goddess