The prehistoric sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf are among the oldest to show the nude female figure. Such works are generally dated to palaeolithic times.

The relief carvings such as the Venus of Laussel may also be mentioned (See Edward Lucie-Smith, "Eroticism in Western Art"). Originally deriving from a rock shelter, it is now in a museum at Bordeaux. The figure (about 46 cm tall) was originally carved on a block overhanging a sanctuary, and is probably Solutrian in date. She had been coloured red to signify power and life; and her breasts, belly, hips and thighs bulge with fat. Her hand rests on his stomach, and the pubic triangle is emphasized. Her attributes are clearly sexual. There has been speculation about the relation of the figure with animal fertility cults. What is particularly interesting about these early representations is that they are not naturalistic, in the way that the early paintings of animals are naturalistic. Instead certain sexual features are exaggerated, such as the thighs and breasts. The apparent desirability of fatness, common also to primitive societies in the modern world, has been attributed to the survival value of stored body food.

In the late Stone Age an Aurignacian sculptor created what has come to be known as the Venus of Lespugue, a palaeolithic female figure carved in the ivory of the mammoth's tusk found in the Haute-Garonne in 1922 (See G.S. Whittet, "Lovers in Art"). The period runs from about 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.