Venus De Milo Women

In our society, we are surrounded by powerful women, Beyoncé, Hillary Clinton, Malala, Rosa Parks, Marilyn Monroe, and Tina Fey. Yet our country has failed to elect a woman President since becoming a free nation. In three of the most iconic works of art, Venus of Willdendorf from the Paleolithic era, the Bust of Nefertiti from Amarna, Egypt and the Venus de Milo from Melos, Greece give us insight in the role played by women in each society. Throughout history, civilizations have portrayed women as objects of beauty and sensuality, all while limiting their natural rights. The Venus of Willdendorf is a world renown prehistoric female figure. The limestone statue stands at 4.5 inches tall, carved approximately around 25,000 BCE, and discovered
These women were able to speak, rule society, and dictate the artwork produced. Ancient Egyptian women thrived, they had the opportunity to own property, have a legal identity in order to initiate court hearings, and were also permitted to divorce. Equality was strong during this period, but it was not so in ancient Greece. The Venus de Milo is one of the most iconic works of all time. It is a nude standing marble statue at 6'7" tall, the piece was discovered on the Greek island of Melos. It is believed to have been created around 150 BCE by the sculptor Alexander of Antioch. The statue is renown for its missing arms and the strong display of sensuality, critics have described the statue as being erotic in nature. The statue was intentionally created to arouse its viewers and to depict the goddess of love as an object of desire(159). Following the style of the Hellenistic period, the statue has lots of curves and beautiful draping on the bottom half of the body. Contrapposto and idealization are also evident with the Venus, shifting a majority of her weight onto her right side. During this period artists created statues interacting with their environment, and its surrounding viewers. Sculpture truly exploded into a higher form of art with the greeks as they brought it to a soft lifelike
Women were in charge of running the household, caring for the children, fetching water, and spend a majority of their time within their home. Women could not own property, and had no legal identity. They were governed under a male dominant figure, who they referred to as their lord. Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, was the first nude statue of a Greek goddess. When first revealed to society it created a commotion. As time progressed other artists began to creating similar works such as Aphrodite, Eros, and Pan; depicting a sensual female figure. Yet women were not suppose to display acts of eroticism in public, how could so many artists create these sensual statues? In my opinion during this time in society, women were used as house maids that tended to their husbands daily needs. They had no opinions or held any political power so men displayed them as mere objects of desire. When comparing all three works of art we see each piece was created in a distinct period of time. The similarities are easily identified beginning with the most prominent feature, each being a woman. Each statue serves a different purpose in the eye of the beholder, the Venus of Willdendorf is believed to have served as a fertility relic, the Bust of Nefertiti was a model for other artisans, and the Venus de Milo was created as an ode to the Goddess of