Three Venuses, (left to right):
Venus of Hohle Fels, Venus of Dolní Věstonice, Venus of Willendorf
Venus of Hohle Fels, Venus of Dolní Věstonice, Venus of Willendorf
The earliest piece of art, so far discovered*, is known as the Venus of Hohle Fels and is made of ivory, carved to resemble a very well-endowed female figure. It is a small statuette, measuring only about six centimetres, but with proportionally huge breasts, belly, thighs and genitalia, whilst the head is reduced to little more than a nub. Radiocarbon dating supports the archaeological evidence and confirms the figure as being 35,000 to 40,000 years old, making it the oldest known artificial representation of the human figure.
Before 2008, when the Venus of Hohle Fels was discovered, that title had been held by another, so called ‘Venus’: the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, found in the Czech Republic in 1925 which is almost 30,000 years old and also remarkable in being the earliest known ceramic figurine, predating fired pottery. It is another small figure that fits neatly in the hand at around 11 centimetres and again we see the huge breasts, belly and thighs with the head and other features reduced to very basic forms.
The Venus of Hohle Fels also predates, by up to ten millennia, what had until its discovery been the oldest known piece of carved sculpture: the Venus of Willendorf, which was discovered a century earlier in 1908. This Venus remains the most widely known and artistically sophisticated of the three. It is also a small mobiliary (portable) item about 11 centimetres tall and carved out of limestone. Its head has no individual facial features and is instead carved all around with a design that resembles a woolly hat, thought to represent braided hair.
All three Venuses have striking similarities. They share the hugely emphasised female characteristics of breasts, belly, thighs and genitalia, though other features, notably the head and face are not represented or are reduced to symbols. This indicates that they are certainly not portraits of an actual individual person, but are symbolic of an ideal feminine state, representing abundance and fertility, both of the people and of the land. This abundance was virtually unknown during the times the three Venuses were made, times when the human race was fighting for daily survival.
The Venuses of Hohle Fels and Willendorf were carved a long way from where they were found, suggesting that the cultures that carved them had developed this skill and traded carvings for other things, or carried these items as they migrated, perhaps as charms, fetishes or totemic items. It seems that it was these peoples, who carved and made the first art, who managed to survive one of the most arduous periods in all human history. They managed to avoid the mass extinction that befell so many other species, including all other hominids. All those other peoples who did not make art, did not make it… This is the very first example of art saving the human race.
This period was in the late Ice Age as the glaciers receded and the oceans rose… There were cataclysmic climate changes so severe that they very nearly finished off all human species. Certainly, individuals as fat as those symbolised in these figurines would have been impossible, or extremely rare. If someone who looked anything like one of these Venuses actually did exist, then they would have been worth sticking with! This leads us to believe that the figures were probably religious symbols, representing fertility and abundance, or at least a hope for such fertility and abundance.
It seems that those clans, tribes and groups of humans who developed some form of art, also stood a better chance of survival during these harsh conditions. But how did making art help our kind to survive? There are three main theories to consider:
Theory one: technological advancement…
The very act of carving bone and stone and modelling in ceramic improved upon the technology and tools of the time. If a crafter can carve a figure from some hard substance, then it follows that they would also be able to fashion better and more useful tools, better stone axes, spearheads, flint knives and fish hooks from shell, for example. This would then give them a competitive advantage when it came to hunting, fishing and defending.
Theory two: trading goods…
If a culture had the time to carve such items, it implies that they were not spending every moment of the day in search of food and shelter. Instead, they carved items that could be traded in times of hardship, for food, shelter, tools and so on. This trade would also contribute to the strengthening of relations with other clans and would be the beginnings of a culture.
Theory three: belief in something greater…
This third theory is necessary to support the first two. The humans of the time developed a belief system that included the concept of a deity, or the personification of an ideal, perhaps what we would call a fertility goddess. A belief that something better was possible and even that there was something, or someone, ‘out there’ that could help in a dire situation that otherwise could feel completely hopeless. They were able to represent something that was not there, abundance and fertility, and keep that concept in mind when facing seemingly insurmountable odds. This itself may have been what saved our ancestors from giving up and helped them to struggle on for that extra day without food, or to climb that last mountain to see what the next valley held for them. They were able to represent abstract hope in a tangible form – it gave them something to hold on to, both literally and metaphorically…
Before 2008, when the Venus of Hohle Fels was discovered, that title had been held by another, so called ‘Venus’: the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, found in the Czech Republic in 1925 which is almost 30,000 years old and also remarkable in being the earliest known ceramic figurine, predating fired pottery. It is another small figure that fits neatly in the hand at around 11 centimetres and again we see the huge breasts, belly and thighs with the head and other features reduced to very basic forms.
The Venus of Hohle Fels also predates, by up to ten millennia, what had until its discovery been the oldest known piece of carved sculpture: the Venus of Willendorf, which was discovered a century earlier in 1908. This Venus remains the most widely known and artistically sophisticated of the three. It is also a small mobiliary (portable) item about 11 centimetres tall and carved out of limestone. Its head has no individual facial features and is instead carved all around with a design that resembles a woolly hat, thought to represent braided hair.
All three Venuses have striking similarities. They share the hugely emphasised female characteristics of breasts, belly, thighs and genitalia, though other features, notably the head and face are not represented or are reduced to symbols. This indicates that they are certainly not portraits of an actual individual person, but are symbolic of an ideal feminine state, representing abundance and fertility, both of the people and of the land. This abundance was virtually unknown during the times the three Venuses were made, times when the human race was fighting for daily survival.
The Venuses of Hohle Fels and Willendorf were carved a long way from where they were found, suggesting that the cultures that carved them had developed this skill and traded carvings for other things, or carried these items as they migrated, perhaps as charms, fetishes or totemic items. It seems that it was these peoples, who carved and made the first art, who managed to survive one of the most arduous periods in all human history. They managed to avoid the mass extinction that befell so many other species, including all other hominids. All those other peoples who did not make art, did not make it… This is the very first example of art saving the human race.
This period was in the late Ice Age as the glaciers receded and the oceans rose… There were cataclysmic climate changes so severe that they very nearly finished off all human species. Certainly, individuals as fat as those symbolised in these figurines would have been impossible, or extremely rare. If someone who looked anything like one of these Venuses actually did exist, then they would have been worth sticking with! This leads us to believe that the figures were probably religious symbols, representing fertility and abundance, or at least a hope for such fertility and abundance.
It seems that those clans, tribes and groups of humans who developed some form of art, also stood a better chance of survival during these harsh conditions. But how did making art help our kind to survive? There are three main theories to consider:
Theory one: technological advancement…
The very act of carving bone and stone and modelling in ceramic improved upon the technology and tools of the time. If a crafter can carve a figure from some hard substance, then it follows that they would also be able to fashion better and more useful tools, better stone axes, spearheads, flint knives and fish hooks from shell, for example. This would then give them a competitive advantage when it came to hunting, fishing and defending.
Theory two: trading goods…
If a culture had the time to carve such items, it implies that they were not spending every moment of the day in search of food and shelter. Instead, they carved items that could be traded in times of hardship, for food, shelter, tools and so on. This trade would also contribute to the strengthening of relations with other clans and would be the beginnings of a culture.
Theory three: belief in something greater…
This third theory is necessary to support the first two. The humans of the time developed a belief system that included the concept of a deity, or the personification of an ideal, perhaps what we would call a fertility goddess. A belief that something better was possible and even that there was something, or someone, ‘out there’ that could help in a dire situation that otherwise could feel completely hopeless. They were able to represent something that was not there, abundance and fertility, and keep that concept in mind when facing seemingly insurmountable odds. This itself may have been what saved our ancestors from giving up and helped them to struggle on for that extra day without food, or to climb that last mountain to see what the next valley held for them. They were able to represent abstract hope in a tangible form – it gave them something to hold on to, both literally and metaphorically…
MORE:
The 'Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind' exhibition was on at the British Museum, London, in 2013... there is still good info and related resources at their website.
* There are a few disputed claims of other artefacts of similar antiquity, such as the Hohlenstein-Stadel 'Lion-Man', which seems to be as old, but with more recent modifications...
* There are a few disputed claims of other artefacts of similar antiquity, such as the Hohlenstein-Stadel 'Lion-Man', which seems to be as old, but with more recent modifications...
No comments:
Post a Comment