The transformation of art

In this Memo, I use two ancient works of art to show the trajectory of human civilization. They are: Venus of Willendorf, a 25,000 year old limestone figurine, and Nefertiti, a 4,000 year old limestone bust. I draw from Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae to tell this story 👇

The Venus of Willendorf shows an overweight and amorphous female figure. Some art historians believe she's a fertility Goddess. Nefertiti shows a sharp, painfully austere female face with a disproportionately big head. Paglia: "The head is swollen to the point of deformity."

Paglia believes that human societies were initially "Earth-cults" and later became "Sky-cults." Earth-cults are dependent on mother nature and hence worship her. They benefit from her bounty but are exposed to her furious moods. Such a culture venerates The Venus of Willendorf.

Sky-cults are advanced civilizations with a much firmer grip over nature. Mother nature has been partially and temporarily subdued via human intelligence. Paglia argues that Judaism and Christianity are sky-cults - they worship an intelligent male God, not Mother nature.

Nefertiti is the art that would predictably emerge in a culture that has transitioned from an Earth-cult to a Sky-cult. Ancient Egypt was just such a culture. Paglia: "The pregnancy of Venus of Willendorf is displaced upward and redefined." The head is now pregnant with ideas.

Paglia: "Willendorf is chthonian belly-magic, Nefertiti Apollonian head-magic." By chthonian Paglia means the darkness and ignorance that hung over the primitive man. By Apollonian she means the light and clarity that civilization brought in via technical and social advancements.

If Willendorf is a fertility Goddess, Nefertiti is an intellect Goddess. Paglia writes that Nefertiti "seems futuristic" due to her enlarged skull. She strangely mirrors the aliens imagined in our science-fiction: both creatures have an overbearing brain.

Paglia writes: "Western culture, moving up toward Apollonian sunlight, discards one burden only to stagger under another." We use our brains to manage the moods, mystery, and challenges of nature - but an overdeveloped brain comes with its own moods, mystery, and challenges.

Paglia: " Mother nature is addition and multiplication, but Nefertiti is subtraction. Visually, she has been reduced to her essence." Nefertiti is a slick, minimalist cognitive machine; the "humpiness and horror of Mother earth," represented in Willendorf, is gone.

Paglia: "Venus of Willendorf is all body, Nefertiti all head." Paglia argues Nefertiti artistically foresaw "Greek categorical thought" & the "stringency, rigor, channeled ideas" of science. But heavy lies the crown: "Nefertiti’s head is so massive it threatens to snap the neck."