Venus of Willendorf
A small female figure, found in Austria in 1908. The breasts, belly and hips are greatly exaggerated, while the face is missing altogether. No one knows for certain what it was used for, but it is usually associated with fertility and survival.
Notice that the face has been replaced by rows of braided hair – the body, not the person, is what matters.
The figure was found on 7 August 1908 at Willendorf in the Wachau valley in Lower Austria. The excavation was led by archaeologists from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, and the discovery was made during work on a new railway. The Venus lay in a layer belonging to the culture known as the Gravettian. Today it is usually dated to around 29,000–25,000 years ago. Its exact age is debated, since it is the layer, not the stone, that has been dated.
The statuette is only just over eleven centimetres tall and fits in a hand. It shows a naked woman with large breasts, a round belly and broad hips. The navel and genitals are clearly marked. The arms are thin and rest on top of the breasts, and incised bands, perhaps bracelets, can be seen on the wrists. The legs end at the knees with no feet, so the figure cannot stand on its own. It was probably meant to be held or carried.
The head has no face at all. Instead it is covered by seven concentric bands of small incised panels. These have been interpreted as braided hair or a woven cap. Such details show that whoever made the figure was meticulous where they chose to be. The absence of a face is therefore a choice, not a lack of skill.
The figure is carved from oolitic limestone, a stone not found at Willendorf. It must therefore have been brought there. A 2022 study suggested that the stone comes from northern Italy, but this has not been confirmed. Traces of red ochre remain on the surface, so the figure was once painted. It was shaped with stone tools, and the surface has been smoothed. The stone is porous and easy to work, which may explain why it was chosen.
No one knows what the figure was used for. The most common interpretation is that it is connected with fertility, survival and access to food. Other scholars argue that it may depict a real woman or a goddess, or have served as an amulet. It has also been suggested that women made similar figures of themselves, seen from above. All these interpretations are uncertain, since there are no written sources.
The name “Venus” is modern and somewhat ironic. It was given by scholars around 1900, who compared the figure with the classical goddess of love. Similar female figures have been found from France to Russia, for example at Lespugue, Dolní Věstonice and Hohle Fels. The Willendorf figure is the best known of them.
The Venus is kept in the Natural History Museum in Vienna, where it is displayed in a room of its own. Today it is one of the most frequently reproduced objects from prehistory. It is often used as the starting point when the history of art is told, and has become a symbol of humanity’s earliest image-making. The figure is rarely shown outside Vienna and is, in principle, never lent.