Female Figure Analysis

Throughout history the woman figure has been depicted in many ways. One of the most prominent way in which the female figure is seen is as a reference to fertility. Another much more appealing aspect of femininity is its use to represent ferocious deities. This essay will examine the different ways in which the female figure has been depicted by examining four pieces of art. The four pieces I will focus on will be: Female figurine found at Dolni., Innana/Ishtar with Lions and Owls, The Gorgon, Medusa, from the west pediment for the Artemis Temple, and Coatlicue, from Aztec temple precinct at Tenochtitlán. (first lecture 1 min)The first example of how women are portrayed throughout time is exemplified by the female figure found at Dolni Vestonice,
The people inhabiting Mesopotamian adhered to a polytheist religion. Due to this fact it is speculated that the purpose of this piece was to representation of Innana/ Ishta. This relief is thought to have been a shrine image meant for worship of the goddess Innana/Ishtar. She was a Mesopotamian goddess of love, fertility, and war. The piece depicts the goddess as a human-like creature with large round breasts, round hips, bird claws for feet, and wings. Her rounded female figure and pronounced breast is what led people to believe is a depiction of the Mesopotamian fertility goddess
1000. This temple is dedicated to Shiva, inside the temple is a “sanctuary holding a Shiva lingam”(85). The temple is meant to look like the mountain range where Shiva lived.
Like Buddhist temples connect the Buddhist people to the heaves, so too does this Hindu temple function as a link between the Hindu people and the heavens. The yasti on the temples peak works like an antenna that connects the earth and heaven. Again like in Buddhist temples, Hindu temples are sacred places that provide the people that adhere to Hinduism a place to worship via circumambulation. The Rajarajeshwara temple at Thanjavur , was built by Raja Raja Chola I, in ca 1010 c.e. The massive temple is made out of granite and it’s decorated with multiple carvings. Above this intricate place of worship sits a massive round stone cap. The mast atop this capstone serves as an axis mundi in order to connect the earth to heaven. The Rajarajeshwara temple is another temple dedicated to Shiva. Today the temple still functions as a sacred place for followers of Hindu to worship. Here worshipers gather and “circumambulate around the lingam shrine” (83). This monumental temple also functions as a reminder of the greatness of the powerful king Rajaraja who built