The Woman of Willendorf

By Angela Woltermann

Once known as the “Venus” of Willendorf, the Woman Willendorf is a classic example of one of the world’s earliest artworks, along with the Lascaux cave paintings in France. The work is a statuette that depicts (what appears to be) a female body with exaggerated features. Such abstraction, in addition to its Prehistoric age, has led to much speculation about what the original function or intention the figure served, but as I have heard most frequently, and as I have been taught countless times in Art History classes, the most common theory is that the Woman of Willendorf was originally intended to bring fertility to its possessors.

The reason the name was changed from “Venus” to “Woman” is likely due to the connotations that came with the term “Venus.” Venus was a goddess, and originally the piece was named after the idea that it served as a fertility deity. Venus, however, was the goddess of love, and this brings up the ideas of goddesses, love, sex, and beauty. The assumed intention of the figure was purely for procreation, and not about the pleasures that accompanied it. Therefore, it was more recently renamed “The Woman of Willendorf” to more accurately depict that the statue was, indeed, a human woman.

The enlargement of particular body parts below the shoulders was never about the sex appeal of the woman. These body parts are given a great deal more detail or emphasis than other parts. For example, the face is wrapped in the figure’s braided hair, and her arms are small and held behind her. Even the feet are smaller. (I’ve heard other musings in the past that this may have had to do with a woman’s perception of her body when she looks down to her feet, but this hypothesis is not as likely.)

The enlargements of the breasts is meant to symbolize the plentiful amount of milk to nurse the young. The breasts serve as their natural function rather than to be aesthetically pleasing in this case. The large abdomen/waist/hips/middle area of the woman represent the largeness of the womb. It has to be large and round so that it will hold many children during the years of fertility in a comfortable and healthy way for the child. The labia is also, though not quite as enlarged as the other parts, emphasized through the detail. Its primary purpose is both the acceptance of the fertilization and where the child will be birthed.

Julia C. Fischer, “The Woman from Willendorf (formerly known as the Venus from Willendorf), Prehistoric, 23,000 BCE,” Fischer Art History, accessed January 27^th, 2014.