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We have reached another February 14, Valentine’s Day, the day of lovers (and lovers), when without a doubt more hearts will be drawn to symbolize love. But are we aware that its form does not conform to reality?
In the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona, ??the symbol of love, the heart, is represented on some locks, on a 17th century table and on an 18th century wardrobe. I don’t know for sure what era these padlocks are from, but their symbol is very appropriate for Valentine’s Day, so I have photographed them for this report in La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos, along with a natural stone that the vicissitudes The passage of time has molded it into this heart shape.
The human heart has four chambers, two atria and two ventricles. It is the size of a fist and, if we adjust to its actual shape, it looks more like an inclined pyramid with the tip located below and to the left. So, where does the popular graphic representation of the heart to symbolize love come from if it refers to this vital organ of our body?
Apparently, the ancients believed that all emotions resided in the heart, as if it were a container for all our passions. An imprecise anatomical description that he made of the heart organ is attributed to the philosopher Aristotle, with the upper part rounded and the lower part pointed. An image that made a fortune, above all, over the years and that artists of the Middle Ages coined as the standard shape of the heart in their artistic representations. Furthermore, courtly love was in fashion at that time and it didn’t take long for this drawing of the heart to be associated with romantic love. ,
In parallel, Valentine’s Day became established as a holiday of Christian origin that commemorates the good works carried out by Saint Valentine of Rome, linked to the universal concept of love. Nowadays, it has also become the day of the year that is dedicated to showing affection, also, with gifts, something that brands and marketing have taken advantage of to market different products and offers related to this theme.
Hearts (poorly drawn) began to proliferate when the exchange of love letters during Valentine’s Day became popular in England in the 17th century. Victorian fashion gave him the definitive boost.
More modernly, the design has been key in the popularization of the heart as a symbol associated with love. And always with a shape that is far from what this essential organ for our survival really has. Perhaps one of the most famous designs was unveiled in 1977, when American graphic designer Milton Glaser created the well-known “I??NY” logo, with a heart instead of the verb “to love” or “to want” (I Love New). York, would be the entire phrase written without the symbol).
But we don’t have to be Westernists either, because the idea of ??the heart as a source of love dates back several millennia to the ancient civilizations of India, China and Japan. It was linked to the concept of chakras as centers of “universal life energy.” In this way, what is at the level of the heart manifests itself in the form of love and compassion.
On the African continent, one of the first civilizations to use the heart graphically was, as in many other things, that of Ancient Egypt, although there is no certainty that it is related to the concept of love that has survived to this day.
Rather, it was in Christianity when the heart (although poorly drawn) became associated with love, as Saint Valentine’s Day demonstrates. In the Catholic Church this symbol did not appear until the 17th century, when Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque had a vision of the heart surrounded by thorns, that is, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was associated with love and devotion.
Curiously, there is a variant of the (bad) drawing of the heart of love and it is when we represent it split in half, broken, that is, as a symbol of heartbreak. But that’s another story…
