A look at one of the most loved and iconic shapes of all time and one of our favourite shapes to eat. From the history of the heart shape and its links to plants both sacred and extinct. To how it has become so entwined with the anatomy, metaphor and symbolism of the human heart, emotions of love. Points of discussion include Aristotle's History of Animals, Pierre Vinken's The Shape of the Heart, the Ficus religiosa, Le roman de la poire, The Master of the View of Saint Gudula, loads of heart-shaped foods, Yard Sale Pizza's Valentine's Day heart-shaped pizza, Neufchâtel, Sachertorte and the absolute legend that is Ralph Wiggum.
2025 Yard Sale Pizza Valentine’s Day heart-shaped margherita
2024 Yard Sale Pizza Valentine’s Dayheart-shaped margherita
14th-century physician Guido da Vigevano’s depiction of a heart as in Pierre Vinken book The Shape of the Heart
Strawberry Shortcake Valentine’s card from the 80s
Heart-shaped leaf of ficus religiosa, Photo by Sophon Nawit, Singapore Via www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/isolated Isolated Stock photos by Vecteezy
Baloch bowl from UNESCO world heritage site of Mehrgarh in modern day Pakistan c. 3000 BCE. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
Birthday Sachertorte cake with baby Sacher hearts from Kipferl i@kipferl_london
Neufchâtel heart shaped cheese from Normandy, Via Coyau / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Young Man Holding a Book, Master of the View of Saint Gudula Netherlandish, ca. 1480.
Portrait of a Young Man, Master of the View of St Gudula, Netherlandish, ca. 1480.