The Venus of Willendorf, also known as woman of Willendorf, is a statuette of 11 cm of height, carved in limestone and painted in red ochre, not native of the zone of discovery, and going back to 24.000-22.000 B.C. It is surely the most famous among the Venuses of the paleolithic period.
the denomination Venus does not have to make to think to a divinity; the great forms and the visible vulva make to think that the statuine has to do with the female fertility. The hair, very cured, was an element with a strong erotic charge in the primitive cultures. The lack of feet suggests that it should not be placed on a plane but perhaps stuck in the ground to bring fertility. Apart from the hypothesis of propitiatory rites, the statuette could simply be a toy for little girls.
If one disregards the possible symbolic meanings, the opulence of the figure appears rather unusual in a society based on hunting, where the availability of food was scarce. The woman’s obesity could be related to the fact that, due to her high social status, she could eat in abundance and be relatively restless. So this could be a portrait of a real woman rather than an abstract idol. Similar artifacts have been found in very distant places while no male examples have been found. This can mean that the woman, in the society of the paleolithic, had to cover a role much important one. It could therefore have been simultaneously a real woman and a Great Mother.
