Coffee Book

DECLARATION I, Mallika Maroo from FYS-Section hereby declare that all digital and written work appearing in this book as part of my Imaging course 15th week submission under the academic guidance of my course faculty is my own and all sources of knowledge used have been duly acknowl- edged. I will be solely responsible for any irregularity found with respect to non-adherence of academic integrity as per ISDI School of Design and Innovation’s standards and requirements.



Preface Through time and history, females have been potrayed in many different ways in various cultures and periods of time. While some cultures depit females as goddesses and worship figures, others may represent females as a symbol of fertility or sexuality. In addition, the connotation of nudity may differ based on the ide- ologies and society of the time period. Through the contruction of these scultpures, one can perceive futher ideas about the beliefs of civilisation from which they orig- inated. This book is a glimpse of the female scultptures created through the timeline of history and their contextual siginificance.

Venus of Willendorf, 28,000 - 25,000 B.C., Austfria Period - Upper Paleolithic, Culture - Gravettian It is an Upper Paleolithic female figurine found in 1908 at Willen- dorf, Austria. The statuette, made of oolitic limestone tinted with red ochre pigment, is dated to circa 28,000–25,000 BCE. Being 11.1cm, the sculpture is easily transportable by hand. As for its visual appearance, though a head is present, the only detail to be seen is a pattern representing a braid or cap; there are no facial features. The feet are absent, while the stomach and breasts are protruding. It has been suggested that she is a fertility figure, a good-luck to- tem, a mother goddess symbol, or an aphrodisiac made by men for the appreciation of men.

Venus of Willendorf

Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro, c- 2500 B.C Period - Mature Harappan, Culture - Indus This female sculpture is a 10.8 cm tall copper-bronze statuette found in the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, an important city in the Harap- pan Civilization. The figurine is a naturalistic free-standing sculpture of a nude woman, with small breasts, narrow hips, long legs and arms, and a short torso. She wears a stack of 25 bangles on her left arm. Although there have been literally thousands of figurines recovered from Harappan sites, including over 2,500 at Harap- pa alone, the vast majority of figurines are terracotta, made from fired clay. Only a handful of Harappan figurines are carved from stone like the dancing lady, of lost-wax copper bronze.

Dancing Girl of Mohenjo- daro

Seated female ,ca. 5600–5000 B.C., Culture - Halaf, Period - Halaf Distinctive clay female figures like this one were produced at sites belonging to the Halaf culture. This example displays a strong stylization with an emphasis on the sexual features. She sits with her large thighs extended, supporting her breasts with her arms; neither hands nor feet are shown. Her head is missing; in other figures of this type when the head is intact, it is elongated into a large noselike projection but otherwise is featureless. Remains of paint may represent jewelry. The meaning of such representations is unknown but may be connected with fertility. The stylized depiction of the nude female form remained an artistic convention in northern Syria, Anatolia, and the Aegean for several millennia.

Seated female

Figure: Female, 19th–20th century, Culture - Sakalava peoples In western Madagascar, important Sakalava families place their dead in rectilinear wooden enclosures whose corners are em- bellished with figural sculptures of women, men, and birds. This sculpture of a woman originally adorned such a gravesite. Its bent knees, elaborate coiffure, and full bosom emphasize an ideal of female imagery that was originally paired with a male figure to sug- gest fertility and regeneration. The location of these figures and the orientation of the funerary structure relate to an astrologically based system of thought known as vintana. Sakalava peoples believe that the date and time of one’s birth determines one’s destiny, and that for each individual there exist certain points on the lunar calendar that are more or less auspicious.

Figure: Female

Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Female, 19th–early 20th century, Culture - Fang peoples, Okak group The Fang peoples derive a sense of continuity with their past as well as a communal cohesiveness in the present through an ancestral cult known as bieri. Bieri reliquary figures, such as this 19th century example, embody the qualities that the Fang admire most in people—namely, tranquility, vitality, and the ability to hold opposites in balance.  This formidable female figure personifies controlled exuberance. Despite her contemplative expression, her being exudes vitality and boundless physical dynamism. The eyes are defined as deeply incised pupils within expansive recesses. These concave passages are echoed in the round at the summit of the forehead by the bold globular projections of the coiffure elements.

Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Female

Statuette of Taweret, ca. 1550–1504 B.C, Period - New Kingdom, Dynasty: Dynasty 18, early Taweret stands with her left foot slightly advanced, suggesting movement. This pose is usually reserved for images of men in ear- lier periods. She also has one arm bent and holds a lotus bud in her raised hand, a gesture not previously seen in representations of women. The introduction of new poses and gestures in the statues of nonroyal women in the early New Kingdom may reflect the increasingly prominent roles played by women at all levels of Egyptian society at the beginning of this period. This statuette was dedicated to Taweret by her mother, suggest- ing that she was unmarried and lived at home. The lotus bud may refer to Taweret’s youth. This unopened flower is rarely seen in statues.

Statuette of Taweret

Female figure, ca. 1500–1100 B.C., Period - Middle Elamite, Culture - Elamite In the middle of the second millennium B.C., the state of Elam in southwestern Iran achieved new levels of political and military power. Excavations at several important sites of this period uncov- ered distinctive objects that attest to the originality of artists and reflect an interest in elements of adornment. This mold-made female figure is depicted with a patterned head- dress and wears crossed shoulder bands that hang thought a slip ring between her breasts and are incised with a herringbone pattern. She is adorned with a necklace, three bracelets on each wrist, and anklets. She holds her breasts in her hands, her en- larged pubic triangle is made up of rows of curls, and her flat but fleshy body and distended legs are characteristic of nude female figures of this period. The figure confronts the gaze of the viewer with her wide, rimmed eyes. Such nude female images have often been interpreted as fertility figures. However, due to their frontal poses, exaggerated body parts, provocative gestures, and richly adorned bodies, they could be interpreted as erotic images.

Female Figure

Standing Court Lady, mid-7th century, Period -Tang dynasty (618–907), Culture - China This figurine of a woman in stylish dress represents a dancer in the court of the Tang dynasty, a prosperous time when foreign influences on social customs, fashion, and costume were promi- nent. Musicians, dancers, and other entertainers from the Western Regions (present-day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) were invited to perform for the enjoyment of the princes and courtiers. The dancer wears a tight high-waisted upper garment with stiff- ened, out-flaring shoulder projections, a long skirt with billowing streamers, and the fashionable “cloud” shoes with exaggerated upturned toes. Her elegantly slender body is echoed by the long sleeves falling to the knees, and her youthfulness is enhanced by the smooth modeling of the face coated with whitish slip. There are traces of polychrome pigments on the garments and gilt on her elaborate headdress. This dancer’s fanciful costume reflects the exuberant material culture of the Tang court.

Standing Court Lady

Terracotta statuette of Nike, the personification of victory- late 5th century B.C., Period - Classical, Culture - Greek Three-dimensional representations of Nike, the winged goddess who brought victory in both battle and athletic contests, usually attempt to evoke flight or the moment of alighting. This flying figure once had wings attached to the slots in the back.

Terracotta statuette of Nike, the personifi- cation of victory

Marble statue of Aphrodite, 1st or 2nd century A.D. Period - Imperial, Culture - Roman Copy of a Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. The lower legs have been restored with casts taken from the Ro- man copy in Florence known as the Medici Venus. The goddess of love is shown as though surprised at her bath. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pu- bis in a gesture that both concealed and accentuated her sexu- ality. Statues of Aphrodite in the nude proliferated during the Hellenis- tic period. All were inspired to some degree by the Aphrodite of Knidos, created in the fourth century B.C. by the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles. That statue, the first major Greek work to show the goddess nude, was celebrated throughout antiquity. This work has the same gesture of modesty and is similar to another Roman copy, the so-called Medici Venus, which has stood in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1688

Marble statue of Aphrodite



References http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-of-willendorf. htm https://asianhistory.tumblr.com/post/5891092451/stand- ing-court-lady-tang-dynasty-618906 https://www.thoughtco.com/the-dancing-girl-of-mohenjo-da- ro-171329 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Venus-of-Willendorf https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254697 https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/52.11.5/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/07.286.23/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1978.345/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/51.7.1/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/26.7.1404/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1978.412.441/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1978.412.577/ https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1985.84/ Images: All the images have been drawn over using Adobe Draw. I editted the contrast, brightness, overlay and saturation through Adobe Photoshop.

Mallika Maroo