this female figure is from the Upper Paleolithic period from Austria carved from limestone originally colored with red ocher (Stokstad 5). The sculpture exaggerated the figure's female attributes by giving it pendulous breasts, a big belly with deep naval , wide hips, dimpled knees and buttocks , and solid thighs (Stokstad 5). by carving a woman with a well nourished body, the artist may be expressing health and fertility (Stokstad 5).in today's world the perfect body is a kind of body that is described to look like a model. Long legs, slim waist, tallness are some of the characteristics of a perfect body in the society today, when generations before thought a healthy and fertile woman would be a heavy set woman known today. in today's society, people would think of the statue as an obese woman when generations before thought of her as wealthy and healthy because she would most likely survive in a clan with a heavy set body. As we see/hear everywhere today, everyone talks about what is healthy and what is not healthy just judging people by their weight or looks ; and when it comes to excessive body fat it is automatically unhealthy because that not a well known figure today in the society. Everything that is described (seen) in the Woman From Willendorf is the total opposite today. The words that describe the Woman From Willendorf, are words that would be used to describe an unhealthy female figure today in this society; dimpled knees, wide hips, big belly are all known to make someone obese and unhealthy. I believe that a heavy set woman, not having too much excessive body fat is much more healthier than ones who are underweight because they would more likely survive diseases, viruses and the ability to produce children. when asking many people of what they think a perfect woman would look like, they picture someone who is a model or an actress because this is what is advertised to us in different types of ways such as magazines , television, and websites.
2 comments:
Art reflects the change in our society as you can see from the image you chose. What;'s interesting to me is that we now see the Woman from Willendorf as an amazing piece of art symbolizing the health and fertility of a woman. It makes me wonder what people many milleniums from now will think about us when they view the images of women so thin theat they look ill. Art tells us so much about cultures that we are able to discern what was important in that culture. What will the people of the future think about us??
as eeka stated, I wonder what the world will think of our visual cultures when they see waif-like girls that are anorexic? very inetreting reflections!
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