We all know the symbol of the broken heart, but where did it come from? Art history has some answers

We all know the symbol of the broken heart, but where did it come from? Art history has some answersThe heartbreak emoji is a near-universal symbol for the despair and desperation of those thwarted by Cupid's sometimes cruel arrow. But where does it come from?

Redditors have naturally latched on to the idea of a lost miracle contraceptive plant, however we must take the Ancients' word on its effectiveness with a grain of salt .plant and the modern-day heart symbol, the same could be said of ancient depictions of vine leaves, leaving me to suggest we look elsewhere for the heartbreak emoji's origins.

This print shows a desperate lover kneeling before Frau Minne — the goddess of love ­— with the banner around her translating to: "my heart suffers pain". But one of my favourites has to be a tiny watercolour in a sketchbook from the mid-1600s that shows a fox gnawing through a bulging heart — his head and front paw popping out the other side. What does this mean? I can't tell you. I can't read 17th-century German.

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