The Dynamic from Conceptions to Experiences in Early Art and the Characterization of Greek Art in the Classical Era.

The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest sculpted figures, dating from between 28,000 and 23,000 BC. She is a limestone sculpture, about four and three-eighths inches tall, and her distinguishing features are highly exaggerated: enlarged breasts and stomach, wide hips, and defined pubic area. However, she has no face (a person's most distinctive social identifier), which leads to the assumption that the sculpture was an idol extolling the sexual and reproductive functions of all females …

…ll. The classical Greeks did not show their deities as half-men, half-animals like other cultures before them did. They used the portrayal of their gods as another opportunity to study the human form. It is this focus on the beauties of the human body and the shift to an experiential, optical worldview that characterize the art of Greece's Classical Period. The classical Greeks created the traditions that would become archetypal references for all successive artists.