Dark history of Valentine's as depicted in art
The history of Valentine's Day is often depicted through the lens of love, affection, and romantic gestures, but like many holidays, its origins and evolution carry a darker, more complex history—one that can be explored through various works of art. From ancient rituals to the medieval period and into the modern age, the art surrounding Valentine's Day reveals a rich, sometimes unsettling story.
1. The Roman Lupercalia: A Bloody Beginning
Before Valentine’s Day became synonymous with love and hearts, the ancient Romans celebrated Lupercalia, a fertility festival that occurred in mid-February. The holiday was marked by ritualistic sacrifices, including the butchering of goats, followed by the use of their skins to whip women. This brutal act was believed to promote fertility and was part of a larger celebration of purification and growth.
Artistic Depictions: Ancient Roman art is sparse in its direct depiction of Lupercalia, but later art and literature often reflect the primal and violent aspects of the festival. You can find references to Lupercalia in works like Ovid's Fasti, which highlights the sexual and brutal nature of the holiday.
2. The Medieval Romance of Courtly Love: The Idealization of Suffering
In the Middle Ages, Valentine’s Day became associated with the feast of St. Valentine, a martyr who was executed for secretly marrying Christian couples in defiance of a Roman emperor. This connection to the martyrdom and sacrifice of love played into the concept of courtly love, a chivalric tradition where knights would express devotion to their ladies through acts of sacrifice and self-inflicted suffering.
Artistic Depictions: Gothic and medieval art often romanticized these notions of suffering. Knights, depicted with heavy armor, could be shown suffering for their lady’s favor, often represented as unattainable or cold. These artworks were deeply intertwined with themes of idealized, almost painful devotion. Famous illuminations from the period show knights holding their swords and shields in devotion, their love sometimes depicted as a martyrdom in itself.
Key Work: "The Book of Hours" (c. 15th century) featured many depictions of courtly love and knights suffering for love, sometimes under the guise of religious devotion.
3. The Rise of the “Valentine” Card: Love and Torture
By the 18th and 19th centuries, Valentine’s Day began to take the form we recognize today, with the widespread exchange of Valentine’s cards. However, some of these cards carried dark humor or sharp satire. The art on early Valentine’s cards was often quite macabre, featuring images of broken hearts, arrows piercing hearts, or even skeletons and death as a reminder of love's inevitable end.
Artistic Depictions: The Victorians, with their fascination for the macabre and gothic, often created cards with images of Cupid’s arrows striking lovers and symbols of mourning. Some valentines depicted skeletons as the final symbol of love’s impermanence. The imagery around love was often conflicted—while the message might be of devotion, the artwork underscored death, loss, and the ephemeral nature of affection.
Key Work: Victorian “penny dreadful” valentines featured playful but darkly twisted motifs of love gone wrong, such as “the heart broken by Cupid’s arrow” or disembodied hearts.
4. The Dangers of Love: Misogyny, Jealousy, and Violence
Throughout the history of Valentine’s depictions in art, jealousy and betrayal often played a role, particularly in the context of unrequited love or forced affection. In many artistic representations, the dangers of love and affection were explored through themes of violence, infidelity, and the volatility of human emotions.
Artistic Depictions: Artists like Caravaggio explored intense emotional states, capturing jealousy, anger, and betrayal in works that depicted love gone wrong. These darker aspects of love were often found in works that explored the emotional cost of romantic obsession. Famous works like "Judith Beheading Holofernes" (1598–1599) show that love, in its most violent form, could lead to death.
5. Modern Day Art: Reclaiming the Dark Side
In modern times, artists have revisited and reinterpreted the darker aspects of Valentine’s Day. While contemporary culture tends to sugarcoat the holiday, the complexity of love continues to be explored in subversive works of art, films, and performances. Some artists today use Valentine’s imagery to comment on the darker side of love: obsession, control, and violence.
Artistic Depictions: Contemporary artists like Banksy and Kara Walker use the holiday's romanticized symbolism to critique social norms, the commercialization of love, and to highlight power dynamics. The juxtaposition of sweetness and violence—whether through the use of red roses and blood, or broken hearts paired with chains—reveals how love can be both enchanting and destructive.
6. Art in Popular Culture: The Perpetuation of Dark Love
Movies, television, and graphic novels have continued to bring the darker aspects of Valentine’s Day to the forefront. In films like American Psycho, Fatal Attraction, or even Titanic, love is often depicted as a force that leads to obsession, betrayal, and sometimes death. These works remind us that love can be all-consuming and toxic, just as it can be uplifting and joyful.
Key Examples: The visual style of these works often draws from gothic and noir influences, featuring shadowy, ominous settings, and characters whose relationships are fraught with danger.
A Love Haunted by Darkness
The art surrounding Valentine’s Day, when examined through a critical lens, is not just filled with hearts, roses, and cherubic imagery—it is also full of warning, sacrifice, and the inevitable pain of love. The dark history of Valentine’s Day, as depicted in art, reflects how love can be both transcendent and destructive, idealized and suffocating. From ancient rituals to modern depictions, the holiday has been a canvas for exploring both the beauty and the terror that love can bring.
As you celebrate or reflect on Valentine’s Day, you might consider these deeper, darker historical roots, reminding us that the line between love and loss is often far thinner than we imagine.
