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The Lespugue Venus is a 25 000 years old ivory figurine of a nude female figure
The Lespugue Venus is a figurine, a statuette of a nude female figure from the Gravettian period, dated to between 26 000 and 24 000 years ago. It was discovered in 1922 in the Rideaux cave of Lespugue (Haute-Garonne) in the foothills of the Pyrenees by René de Saint-Périer (1877-1950). Approximately 6 inches (150 mm) tall, it is carved from tusk ivory, and was damaged during excavation.
Of all the steatopygous (large posterior) Venus figurines discovered from the upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Lespugue, if the reconstruction is sound, appears to display the most exaggerated female secondary sexual characteristics, especially the extremely large, pendulous breasts.
According to textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, the statue displays the earliest representation found of spun thread, as the carving shows a skirt hanging from below the hips, made of twisted fibres, frayed at the end. The Venus of Lespugue resides in France, at the Musée de l'Homme.
Text above adapted from Wikipedia
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Front view of the Lespugue Venus. This venus was carved from ivory and was damaged during excavation.
Photo: http://www.toila.org/IMPalaeoG2.html |
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The Lespugue venus, side view.
Photo: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sZFAimFLpE4/TLSP5yzzmII/AAAAAAAAACA/agTKkdY85ms/s1600/Venus+de+Lespugne2.JPG
The Lespugue venus, back view.
Photo: Leroi-Gourhan (1982)
The Lespugue venus, front and back view.
Photo: Cohen (2003)
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Front view of the Lespugue Venus. This is a restoration. Photo: M. Burkitt 'The Old Stone Age' |
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Back view of the Lespugue Venus, showing the skirt at the back. Photo: T. Powell 'Prehistoric Art' |
Lespugue Venus
Photo: Gimbutas (1996)
Lespugue Venus
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile at the Venusium, a museum at Willendorf in Austria.
Lespugue Venus
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile at the Vienna Natural History Museum.
Replica of the Venus of Lespugue, carved from tusk ivory (Gravettian, Upper Paleolithic); France, Musée de L'Homme, Paris
Photo: José-Manuel Benito / Locutus Borg
Date: May 2006
Permission: This work has been released into the public domain.
References
- Cohen C., 2003: La femme des origines. Images de la femme dans la préhistoire occidentale,, Paris, Belin-Herscher, 2003, 191 pages.
- Gimbutas M., 1996: Die Sprache der Göttin - Das verschüttete Symbolsystem der westlichen Zivilisation, 1996 (2. Auflage) / Zweitausendeins.
- Leroi-Gourhan A., 1982: Prähistorische Kunst - Die Ursprünge der Kunst in Europa, Herder-Verlag, Freiburg, 5. Auflage 1982