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- The heart symbol is an ideograph used to express the idea of the "heart" in its metaphorical or symbolic sense. Represented by an anatomically inaccurate shape, the heart symbol is often used to represent the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially romantic love.
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- Helen South
- The Classic Heart. The modern heart shape is a pictogram - an abstract symbol rather than a realistic drawing; while having some origin in the real form, it has lost much of its relationship to the object it represents - much as the 'smiley face' bears little relation to the human face, with simplified elements arranged in a meaningful pattern.
- The Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart, or Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a symbolic representation of the physical heart of Jesus, the Son of God in Christian tradition.
- The Wounded Heart. The heart pierced with an arrow variously represents the pain of love (be it simple longing or unrequited love) and sometimes a broken heart, although in modern usage a zig-zag shatter line is more usual for the latter.
- Cross, Heart and Anchor. The combined Cross, Heart and Anchor is another religious symbol, representing for Christians the three theological virtues of 'faith, hope and charity'.
The heart symbol is commonly used in art, literature, and popular culture to represent love, affection, and emotion. It is often used in greeting cards, jewelry, and other gifts to express romantic love or friendship.
- Overview
- A Heart-Shaped Plant Used as Birth Control
- Medieval Anatomical Drawings Featured Heart Shape
History offers various explanations from an ancient species of giant fennel to anatomical drawings in medieval texts.
The heart shape is recognized the world over as a symbol of romantic love and affection, but its historical origins are difficult to pin down. Some believe the iconic pictogram is derived from the shape of ivy leaves, which are associated with fidelity, while others contend it was modeled after breasts, buttocks or other parts of the human anatomy.
Perhaps the most unusual theory concerns silphium, a species of giant fennel that once grew on the North African coastline near the Greek colony of Cyrene. The ancient Greeks and Romans used silphium as both a food flavoring and a medicine—it supposedly worked wonders as a cough syrup—but it was most famous as an early form of birth control.
Ancient writers and poets hailed the plant for its contraceptive powers, and it became so popular that it was cultivated into extinction by the first century A.D. (legend has it that the Roman Emperor Nero was presented with the last surviving stalk). Silphium’s seedpod bore a striking resemblance to the modern Valentine’s heart, leading many to speculate that the herb’s associations with love and sex may have been what first helped popularize the symbol. The ancient city of Cyrene, which grew rich from the silphium trade, even put the heart shape on its money.
While the silphium theory is compelling, the true origins of the heart shape may be more straightforward. Scholars such as Pierre Vinken and Martin Kemp have argued that the symbol has its roots in the writings of Galen and the philosopher Aristotle, who described the human heart as having three chambers with a small dent in the middle.
According to this theory, the heart shape may have been born when artists and scientists from the Middle Ages attempted to draw representations of ancient medical texts. In the 14th century, for example, the Italian physicist Guido da Vigevano made a series of anatomical drawings featuring a heart that closely resembles the one described by Aristotle.
The heart symbol is an ideograph used to express the idea of the "heart" in its metaphorical or symbolic sense. Represented by an anatomically inaccurate shape, the heart symbol is often used to represent the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially romantic love.
Feb 14, 2024 · Heart shapes were used in decorative art by ancient societies. One of the oldest examples is an Indus Valley civilization pendant embossed with a heart-shaped fig leaf. Ivy, fig and water-lily leaves were all used in art and heraldry. Ivy is often used as a symbol of fidelity.
Feb 5, 2021 · The origins of how the symbol of the heart came to signify what it does today are a little unclear but essentially, there are two hypotheses on this one: 1. The first is that the heart symbol derives from an elusive plant called the silphium whose seedpod resembles a heart.
Feb 7, 2024 · Pigment on plaster. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Fausto Benedetti, 1925.6.40. Why is there a ️ on an ancient Roman wall painting fragment? Former graduate student intern Vivian Jin traces the evolution of the heart symbol across a selection of objects in the Harvard Art Museums collections.
