05/25/2024 – 19:18
Popularized for centuries, a universal symbol, at first glance, does not appear to be a real human organ. But recent research reveals that scholars may have based the drawing on autopsies from the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The heart, a universal icon of love and emotions, is a symbol that we all recognize instinctively – and it doesn’t matter if it looks like the organ or not. original.
Although many think that the heart symbol is a mere artistic abstraction, a recent study suggests that there could indeed be a fascinating anatomical connection behind this artistic representation, popularized more than five centuries ago.
Since ancient Greece, philosophers such as Aristotle have linked the heart to emotions and love. Poets and writers of the time, such as the famous Sappho, also echoed this association in their works. However, according to Dutch neurosurgeon and writer Pierre Vinken, the graphic representation of the heart as we know it today, which became popular in Europe during the 16th century, appears to have been inspired by Aristotelian descriptions of the organ.
Other theories suggest that the classic heart design represents the leaf of an extinct species of giant fennel called silphium, used in ancient Greece and Rome as a condiment, medicine and contraceptive. It is also speculated that it may derive from anatomical shapes such as breasts or buttocks, or even from the lily leaf or ivy.
However, a recent study published in the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine proposes an alternative theory, related to precise anatomical observations made in ancient times.
Modern angiographic images and observation in the past
Using coronary angiography, a modern technique that uses a special dye, one observation suggests that the silhouette of the heart could have a precise anatomical origin.
This discovery raises the intriguing possibility that ancient anatomists glimpsed this pattern long before modern science revealed it. The study authors question whether anatomical studies carried out from the time of the Greek physicist Galen (131-201) to the Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), including by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo performing autopsies to improve his understanding of human anatomy, could have influenced the creation of the heart symbol.
It is possible that, using rudimentary techniques for molding the coronary circulation, these early scholars observed a shape similar to what we recognize today. The hypothesis is that scientists in the past had already obtained a similar shape, probably by injecting plaster into the coronary arteries during autopsies and then transposing the obtained structure into drawings.
Although this theory remains conjectural in nature and more historical studies are needed to confirm it, the authors of the new study suggest that it may be “the most plausible hypothesis to explain the exact correspondence of our images to the ancient archetypal image of the heart.”
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