Interesting info from Janson History of Art (2nd edition 1977)…
“Stone Age men were content to collect pebbles, as well as less durable specimens, in whose natural shape they saw something that rendered them ‘magic’; echoes of this approach can sometims be felt in later, more fully worked pieces. Thus the so-called Venus of Willendorf, one of many such female fertility figurines, has a bulbous roundness of form that recalls an egg-shaped ‘sacred pebble’; her navel, the central point of the design, is a natural cavity in the stone. ”
This reminds me of collecting pebbles as a child.
A kind of connection with unknown people long long ago.
And I feel again the joy of the lovely round forms of the warm pebbles in my hand.
