Alberti’s Window

Apparently I am behind-the-times in regards to recent prehistoric discoveries. I heard that the world’s oldest instrument was recently discovered in Hohle Fels, Germany – it’s a flute (carved from the bone of a griffon vulture) that is at least 35,000 years old. (You can read more about this flute here and can listen to a replica of the flute played here). I didn’t know, though, that this flute was discovered in sediment next to a female statuette (the discovery of which was announced last May).

This nude, buxom female figurine, the Venus of Hohle Fels, is at least 35,000 years old (shown above). It is one of the oldest known examples of figurative art. The exaggerated emphasis on the female genitalia and breasts are a common feature in prehistoric art, as can be observed in statuettes like the Venus of Willendorf (ca. 28,000-25,000 BC, shown below). It is thought that statuettes like these were used for some type of fertility ritual.

However, there is one major difference between these two statuettes. The Venus of Willendorf has a head full of tight, stylized curls, whereas the Venus of Hohle Fels is headless. Intentionally headless. Instead of a head, there is a carved ring at the top of the figurine, supposedly so that the statuette could be dangled from some type of string. I think it’s especially interesting that the head is missing – this reinforces the fact that these statuettes were not intended to represent specific individuals (which is also the reasoning for why the Venus of Willendorf does not have any facial characteristics).

If you’re interested, you can read more about the Venus of Hohle Fels here.

What do you think of these new discoveries?

It’s fun to find out that a famous musician/writer/playwright/poet/actor also liked to create visual art. It makes sense that creative minds like to have more than one artistic outlet. My friend Miss B just pointed out that the writer Hans Christian Andersen was also an artist – he made paper cuts (one example, Bouquet (n.d.) is shown on the left). They’re quite fun. You can see more examples of Andersen’s paper cuts on Miss B’s post, and you can also see the Royal Library’s extensive collection here.

I knew that Andersen had a lot of diverse interests, but I didn’t know that he dabbled with the visual arts. Apparently, Andersen was a very popular paper cutter. He would make these cuts to amuse friends and their children. Andersen would work on a paper cut when storytelling,and then end the tale by opening up the paper cut and showing the final product to his audience.¹

I really like the Odense City Museums’ interpretation of Andersen’s fascination with paper: “To Hans Christian Andersen paper was not meant to be media for the written word only. Paper – it seems – represented the basis for his imaginative expressing. Through out his life Hans Christian Andersen was an addict to paper. He wrote on it, he drew on it – and he used it to cut in.”²

Now I’m interested in learning more what Andersen’s writing and editing style was like. Would he constantly edit and deconstruct the papers that he filled with words, just like he frequently cut away bits of paper to make visual art?
1 Odense City Museums, “Papercuts by Hans Christian Andersen”; available from http://museum.odense.dk/andersen/klip/billedstart.asp?sprog=engelsk; Internet, accessed 1 July 2009.

2 Ibid.