# Who designed the heart shape? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204 "2003-11-14T06:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sinek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sinek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinek)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/1 "2003-11-14T06:46:20Z")
Hello everyone New poster so please be gentle;) . What I’ve been wondering is how the familiar heart shape came into being. I tried to google an answer but no luck so far. This may have a ridiculously simple answer for all I know. Any replies would be appreciated. Thanks:) ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/2 "2003-11-14T06:58:56Z")
[This site](http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010214.html) seems to confirm my immediate thought - “it’s been in use since ancient times - and if you kinda squint, [it’s possible to see how it could evolve from a poorly drawn/stylized version of an actual heart](http://www.umm.edu/transplant/images/heart.gif).” ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/3 "2003-11-14T07:03:01Z")
[The Shape of the Heart](http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/180/a) > [@](#): > > Have you ever wondered why the iconographic representation of the heart differs from its true anatomical shape? This question has intrigued Dr Pierre Vinken, a former neurosurgeon turned publisher, who explores this intellectual conundrum in this historical monograph. > > In 1962 the art historian Erwin Panofsky was similarly perplexed. He noted that **the valentine heart shape has been used since prehistoric times and was seen in Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain.** I guess you’ll have to buy the book to find out more. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/4 "2003-11-14T07:36:50Z")
The **Perfect Master** ’s take on the matter: [How come valentine hearts don’t look anything like real hearts?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_146.html) ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/5 "2003-11-14T07:40:28Z")
Oh, and welcome to the SDMB, **Maladopteryx**! ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/6 "2003-11-14T07:46:29Z")
Desmond Morris is full of shit. He thinks that breasts are attractive to males because _they_ mimic buttocks, too. Ferraris probably look like buttocks to Morris as well. This is also to guy who wrote a book about cats, which may as well have been a book about dogs with the word “dog” crossed out and “cat” written in in crayon. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/7 "2003-11-14T08:11:28Z")
Um, “_the_ guy” ---
**Author:** ![Sinek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sinek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinek)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/8 "2003-11-14T08:15:04Z")
Wow, fast work. Thanks for all the replies. That tells me all I need to know. P.S. : Don’t let that get in the way of your private dialogue though Desmostylus ;D. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/9 "2003-11-14T08:35:05Z")
[Here’s another link for you, Maladopteryx](http://www.the-earchives.com/scripts/download.asp?id=3734) (warning, sound) ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/10 "2003-11-14T15:59:03Z")
A Valentine heart mounted with a small cross was the ancient Egyptian symbol for the heart. Robert Graves once wrote a short essay in which he suggested that the heart symbol derives from ancient beliefs about the movement of the sun; supposedly many ancient people thought that the sun made an even arc over the surface of the earth and then plunged beneath it until Midnight, when it began an upward arc back to its position at dawn. He neglected to explain why the Valentine heart has a cleft at the top, though, nor did he really explain the connection between hearts and the movement of the sun. I also read an essay once suggesting that the heart shape was supposed to be based on a woman’s labia and the arrow was a symbol for…you know. It appears, though, that hearts were drawn as they are now for a long time before anyone linked them with arrows. My own WAG is that the shape is based on hearts of poultry. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/11 "2003-11-14T16:01:31Z")
Desmond Morris is _way_ seriously obsessed with butt cheeks and thinks everything round is round in order to look like butt cheeks. (cf. Sigmund Freud by way of Melanie, “A thing is a phallic symbol if it’s longer than it’s wide”) He (Morris) may nevertheless be sort of on the right path this time but I think he’s standing behind the subject when he should be standing in front of her instead. The classic “valentine” shape is pretty reminiscent of the female torso contours. Couple of rounded shapes on the top, a V shape at the bottom… ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/12 "2003-11-14T18:28:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The classic “valentine” shape is pretty reminiscent of the female torso contours. Couple of rounded shapes on the top, a V shape at the bottom… The Paleolithic ideal of female beauty doesn´t fit that description, stone age babes were more like the Michelin Man. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/13 "2003-11-14T18:59:18Z")
The iconic modern use of the heart symbol came from the I [heart] New York logo that Mary Wells Lawrence designed for the New York State Department of Economic Development’s Tourism Board in the mid-1970s. She talks about it and some of its later uses in her book, [A Big Life in Advertising](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?isbn=0375409122). ---
**Author:** ![john31584](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@john31584](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john31584)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/14 "2003-11-14T21:31:28Z")
i’ve heard that in ancient times that shape was actually used to represent a vulva. ---
**Author:** ![Sinek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sinek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinek)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-designed-the-heart-shape/213204/15 "2003-11-14T22:33:57Z")
heh thanks for that link Desmostylus. Can I call you Des?