Tha-THUMP. Tha-THUMP.
That’s the sound generations of little kids have heard, for 68 years, as they threaded their way through the aorta, the left and right ventricle, and the other scenic spots in the giant walk-through heart — since 1954, a stellar attraction at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute science museum.
Adults have heard something else. A question.
“But why doesn’t it look like a heart?”
The one at the Franklin Institute looks like a vast, walk-through potato. Which is indeed the actual shape of the human heart.
But that’s not what a heart looks like. Any kid could tell you that.
A heart is a red, V-shaped thing, with two humps at the top. It may or may not have an arrow piercing it. And on Valentine’s Day, it’s full of chocolates.
“The little kids are shocked,” said Adam Piazza, museum presenter and manager. “A lot of them are grossed out by the big heart. They’re used to seeing that other shape, that very simple form. ‘That doesn’t look like the picture I did in school!’ “
With Valentine’s Day upon us once more, it’s worth asking: how is it that the universal symbol for “heart” looks nothing like a heart?
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And how is it that — despite such a blatant disregard for reality — that shape has become one of the most familiar in the world?
Over the last 600-plus years the “heart” symbol has been seen on greeting cards, playing cards, candy boxes, throw pillows, jewelry, potholders, picture frames, candles, ceramic dishes, cakes of soap, lockets, holiday cookies, graffiti, Mylar balloons, carvings in tree trunks, keychains, planters, advertisements for the American Heart Association, sunglasses, wristwatches, and “I [HEART] NY” bumper stickers. It is one of the oldest, most universal images in Western culture: the first emoji.
“There’s lot of icons and symbols out there, but it’s tough to come up with something as widespread and universal as the heart,” says Angus Kress Gillespie, a folklorist who teaches in the American Studies department at Rutgers University New Brunswick.
The heart has reasons
Our ancestors, who came up with this pictograph, were in many ways uninformed. But it’s not like they never cut open a corpse and saw someone’s ticker.
Ever since the very first doctor made the very first incision, it’s been known that the human heart looks nothing like a Russell Stover gift box. So how did this odd glyph come about?
Ready? Are the kids still listening?
Maybe send them to the kitchen for some Mallomars. Because this next part is PG-13.
To begin with, let’s state the obvious. Sexual attraction does not — as far as doctors can determine — originate in the muscle that pumps blood through the circulatory system.
“The heart has nothing to do with love,” Piazza said.
Love comes from other places. Places better not mentioned. Places so unmentionable, in fact, that medieval artists used to cover them with fig leaves.
Ever notice the shape of a fig leaf?
In particular, the leaf of the Ficus religiosa? It’s a species with significance in several religions — it’s also known as the bodhi tree, the tree under which the Buddha found enlightenment. But in Western art, it happens to be the leaf that covered Adam’s privates. At least, in the more prudish paintings.
That leaf is heart-shaped.
Other plant species share this peculiarity. Which, say some scholars, could be the beginning of the association of the “heart” shape with sex.
Other theories also relate to vegetable life. A medicinal plant called Silphium — laserwort — was used thousands of years ago as an aphrodisiac. It has heart-shaped fruits. The association of fruit with sex is of course basic biology.
Significantly, “Romance of the Pear” (“Le roman de la poire”) is the name of the 1250 A.D. book that contains what is — perhaps — first depiction of a “valentine” heart in Western painting.
In it, a young knight is depicted offering something vaguely heart-shaped to his lady love.
Is it a pear? Or is it a valentine — which is, after all, somewhat pear-shaped, tapered at the bottom and round at the top?
Fruits are, as we all know, full of erotic significance. They were Eve’s temptation to Adam. They are rounded and swelling — like a womb, like the breasts and buttocks. So it makes sense that the symbol for sexual love would be a stylized fruit.
Moreover, in the earliest depictions, the heart symbol is upside-down — making it resemble, even more, a hanging fruit. Not to mention certain body parts. It’s not until the late 14th century that the heart took its final form.
“The bilateral roundness has nothing to do with the human heart,” Gillespie said. “But it does have to do with the exterior of the body, the roundness of the breasts, the roundness of the buttocks. But it’s suggestive, not representative. It allows the mind to race ahead.”
Taking heart
Giotto and Pisano are among the medieval artists who use “heart” iconography in their work. This was, after all, the age of chivalry. Romantic love was invented in this era. The “heart” emblem was useful shorthand. A hugely popular 14th century work, “Documenti d’amore” by Italian poet Francesco Barberino, featured an illustration of Cupid, riding a horse wreathed in hearts.
Then The Heart went viral.
To be specific, it appeared in playing cards. Which were, in that age, the universal pastime.
Until then, the four “suits” were coins, clubs, cups, and swords — the so-called “Latin” deck. But in the 15th century, the German and French introduced the “hearts” suit. The heart symbol would have been seen on every card table in every home in every nation — from the palaces of dukes to the kitchens of peasants. Which may well be how The Heart conquered Europe.
A final question remains. Why is the heart the symbol of love?
Why not the eyes, through which we first glimpse our beloved? Or the brain? Or — you know — those other parts?
“It’s the brain that sends the message that this person is beautiful or attractive,” Gillespie said. “Our affection for another person is probably lodged in the brain.”
Maybe it’s because the heart registers excitement. “If you like someone, your heart rate accelerates, or your heart misses a beat,” Piazza said.
Or maybe it’s because the pumping heart suggests reliability. It goes on and on, like our love is supposed to. Though sometimes — in medicine and romance, both — it doesn’t work out that way.
“If I’m pitching a message to a romantic partner, I’m trying to assure him or her that my devotion is perpetual,” Gillespie said. “Even when we’re asleep, the heart is still pumping blood. There’s a suggestion of endlessness.”
Jim Beckerman is an entertainment and culture reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to his insightful reports about how you spend your leisure time, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: beckerman@northjersey.com
Twitter: @jimbeckerman1
