Society's Identity Search through Art

This paper proposes identification of social personality by examination of two works of art in order to discuss how humans define art and the meaning of art. Manet's painting was firmly rooted in Paris of the mid-19th century. It is thus not difficult for us to get a glimpse of what society was like in that time and place by looking at Manet's paintings. Looking at the Venus of Willendorf, however, does not tell us anything about the society that it is a relic of. It thus requires us to use our intellects and our imaginations in order to piece together an explanation that might satisfy us personally, but can never be held up as a firm example, as we can with Manet's paintings. Thus, it can be said that the relationship between art and society is in fact conditioned by a third factor, which has been the main subject of our inquiry - that of history. Without all the written records of the 19th century that have been kept, we might have no way of knowing what we are looking at when we study a Manet painting. This truth comes to the surface when we look at the Venus, which comes from a period that pre-dated all known forms of writing.