is it a symbolism thing, or something completely different?
In: 14
“It’s based on silphium” is possible, but there’s not really any evidence for it. I consider it to be an Internet urban legend. We don’t have anything from the Romans comparing silphium to hearts, or particularly associating the shape with love. Plus, there’s the fact that Ancient depictions of silphium tended to depict a large stalk, not a “heart symbol”.
It’s a pretty natural shape to use for stuff, since a lot of leaves are shaped in that way, and there’s use of heart symbols in art going back a very long time.
The “heart shape” becomes associated with romance and the heart in the Late Medieval period. Note that this is centuries after the extinction of silphium and the societies that used it. The very first depiction of a human heart in a shape that looks like the heart shape is in a French story called the *Romance of the Pear*. So some art historians think that the “heart” is actually supposed to be a pear, which unsurprisingly is somewhat central to the story. It’s possible that later artists just liked the shape and ran with it.
Also, let’s be real, the heart shape does look kind of like a heart: pointy bottom, two lobes. It’s not that big a stretch, especially when you add a big artery sticking out the top like some depictions do. Don’t forget that art of the time tended to be highly stylized, though we can then ask why Renaissance artists continued to use the more stylized heart even as they otherwise turned more towards realism.
Latest Answers