Caves to Cathedrals

As I described in the previoust post, one of the primary appreciations that I aim to cultivate in students is that of scale. These two objects serve this purpose well – while the Lion Man almost stands one foot in height, the Venus of Willendorf barely reaches four inches.

I did not, however, discuss these objects beyond demonstrating their scale and discussing each object’s monumental or miniature qualities.

But as I prepared, I came across the following useful websites, which I happily share.

The Stadt Museum in Ulm has a highly informative website on the Lion Man.  They have translated an introductory page into English, but leave the remainder in German.  They provide fascinating details, but you may only save these images through copying your screen (Control + Prt Sc).  The Natural History Museum in Viennaoffers much less on the Venus of Willendorf. 

For images, Wikimedia Commons has many, including a nice image from the side and back.  I always show other angles, if I can find them, for few it always interests me to see what viewpoints the carver intended.

Prehistoric art finds many proponents on the internet.  Christopher Witcombe, of Art History Resources on the Web fame, has published a brief illustrated essay on the Venus of Willendorf on his website, in the traditional art history survey style.  A poem by Yusef Komunyakaa published by the Atlantic monthly demonstrates the popularity of the object as well as offers a surprisingly perceptive description.  But, in general with such enigmatic works, I tread gently and prefer the insights that the students can gain through their own examination of the object.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 6.44 and is filed under Paleolithic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.