History of the Shape of the Heart Icon

The collage reveals the symbols that contributed to the shape of the heart icon as we know it. Elements from anatomy of animals that were exposed during sacrifice, from botany with leaves and seeds that reflected similar emotional connections as the heart, and elements of human anatomy associated with attraction, love and romance combined to result in the shape of the icon of the heart as we know it.

Adapted and modified from public domain photograph by Frank Eugene, taken 1898, called Adam and Eve and published in Camera Work no. 30,1910

Description

The collage is a collection of artifacts that reveal the conceptual and graphic evolution of the heart icon.

Since the heart was central to the body and soul of many cultures, it was given the utmost admiration in all spheres of life. It was a trusted organ with great power and reflected the highest principles of honesty, bravery, morality and love.

So how did the shape of the icon evolve?

Images from Animal Anatomy

In ancient time of sacrifice, there was knowledge of internal anatomy of the sacrificial animals. A cow’s heart (seen in the top left of the image) has a shape more akin to the shape of the icon as we know it . It is difficult to liken the shape of the human heart to that of the icon.

Images from Botany

The silphium seed of ancient Greece had a shape akin to the icon of the heart. Silphium (aka laserwort) was a plant that was used in Greco-Roman antiquity as a seasoning and as a medicine. It grew in the rich soil of the North African Greek city of Cyrene which is now the city of Shahhat Libya. The seed was used as a contraceptive and was highly popular. Silphium became critical to the Cyrenian economy and as a result most of the coins of that era displayed an image of the plant or its seed. The species that grew in Cyrene is now extinct but a member of the family survives as a yellow daisy like flower which has a heart shaped seed seen in gold in the art piece.

The ivy leaf and the water lily are heart shaped. Many of the coffins of the ancients were decorated with heart shaped ivy leaves. The water lily adorned the heraldry of the middle ages, particularly of Danish ancestry. These adornments reflected emotional devotion and was conceptually similar to the emotional devotion to the heart. The shape and symbolic meaning of the icon therefore reflected this common theme and was used interchangeably.

Shapes of the Human Body and Organs of Romance

The shape of the the organs of masculine and feminine attraction, going back to Adam and Eve. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” The fig leaf is in fact heart shaped as well

In addition the two rotund shapes with a central cleft as seen in the hearty are also present in the breast, buttocks, and scrotum with testes, while the triangular shape of the female groin with the mons pubis have components of the of the heart icon. On the other hand the icon was also used to identify the brothels in Pompei!