The Willendorf Venus 3D

Release Date: 2008|08|08
Number of Copies: 350.000
Design: Outer Aspect Ltd
Printed by: Outer Aspect Ltd
Type: Block issue

The Willendorf Venus is Austria´s most famous and valuable find from the later Palaeolithic age. A very special stamp has been created for this outstanding object. A three-dimensional effect makes the Venus appear particularly vividly. There is no doubt that this innovative lenticular image stamp is a further milestone in contemporary stamp design.
The Venus sculpture was created for 25,000 years. It was found in Willendorf in the Wachau on 7 August 1908. The figure is 11 cm high, made of fine limestone and has survived almost undamaged. It shows a corpulent naked woman. Wide hips, protruding stomach and heavy breasts are the characteristics of her appearance. Her arms are only suggested, her wrists decorated with serrated bracelets. The upper and lower legs are natural in form, the feet are missing. Her weak shoulders bear a large head bending slightly forward, without a face, almost entirely decorated with a complicated hairstyle made up of rows of ringlets reaching deep into the back of her neck. Residues of colour indicate that the sculpture was originally painted with thick red chalk. (Incidentally, the original can be found in the Vienna Natural History Museum).

The village of Willendorf lies on the left bank of the Danube. During the later Palaeolithic age, the slopes of the Danube valley were the hunting ground of the ice age hunters. In summer 1908, the Imperial Natural History Museum, under the direction of Josef Szombathy, was carrying out systematic excavations. Particular attention was paid to the Willendorf II site, which lay in the area of the route of the Danube Bank Railway. Of the seven known sites, Willendorf II is certainly the most important and one of the most significant for Palaeolithic research in central Europe. The limestone figure was found in the ninth occupation later, and was next to a large hearth with charcoal residues. 19 years later, the 19 cm large Venus II, carved from a mammoth’s tusk, was found only a few metres from the first site.

Of all 130 Venus statuettes found in Europe and Asia, the Willendorf Venus is the most attractive and the oldest -- and above all a figure that has survived complete. The find caused a world sensation in expert circles. The figure has remarkably many similarities with Eastern European statuettes, all sharing an emphasis on the sexual characteristics. What is remarkable is that all of these archaeological finds are subject to the same geometrical principle: they can be circumscribed by a rhombus with remarkable accuracy.

The Venus statuettes are regarded as symbols of fertility. The corpulence may also be an expression of the desire for sufficient food and good fortune in hunting. Another remarkable feature is that all the statuettes found to date originated from permanent settlements.