The original audience were women from the Prehistoric Period. Venus figurines have been discovered and classified in the Pyrenees-Aquitaine, Italian, Rhine-Danube, Russian, and Serbian cultural groups. They’ve also been found in areas of Japan and China so most or even all cultures used these figurines. They had nothing to do with social status because in the Prehistoric Period there was no such thing. The figurines had substantial outstanding features; they all have enlarged stomach and breasts, enlarged legs and vulva, and small or nonexistent hands, feet, and/or facial features. The enlarged body parts are all parts of a woman that are involved in birthing a child. The small or nonexistent hands, feet, and facial features are designed that way to make the enlarged body parts look bigger and also because they have nothing to do with the process of giving birth: they’re insignificant to the purpose of the figurine. The figurine itself is believed by the original audience to bring fertility to the woman whom possesses it. The original color of the figurines was red or, more specifically, “barn red”: the color of blood (Kettlewell). The red of a person’s blood comes from iron, which is believed to be an important vitamin when it comes to women’s fertility and a healthy child birth. Women of this historical period valued the Venus figurines because it was believed they would bring them fertility and a healthy child birth. However, today the Venus figurines are viewed not as a figure to bring fertility to the beholder, but as a work of art.
The second viewing audience today would be an artist. Obviously, the most noticeable features of the figurine would be the enlarged body parts. However, artists will look at the aspects of the figurines that went unnoticed by the women of the prehistoric age. First of all, artists would comment on is the symmetry of the figurine. The symmetry of the Venus has to be an artistic choice, not an example of matching reality (Kettlewell). Today, many artists still debate on whether or not the figurines are pregnant or just fertile; the discussion has been put into