Sacred Heart Art- A Case for the Startling

 It's June, which means it's everyone's favorite themed month. Lots of love floating around, and some things are just FLAMING. 


It's the month of devotion to the Sacred Heart! 

(I know what I did there, and I'm not sorry). 

Here's a completely unasked for rant on various popular depictions of the Sacred Heart and my very strong, yet totally uneducated, opinion on them. 

Take all of the following with a grain of salt. Maybe more than a grain. I may have been (was) a little tipsy on sleep deprivation and a slightly-larger-than-it-needed-to-be rum and orange juice at the time I wrote this. 

Tiny Heart Girly Hair Jesus

There are several variations of this one out there, and it's the one most commonly seen on Grandma's wall. 


I suppose it's adequate as far as religious art goes, but I really think it kind of undercuts the message. Jesus appears to this nun and says very dramatic poetic things about how His heart is literally burning with love for souls and then goes so far as to show up one day with His literal HEART IN HIS HANDS AND IT'S BLEEDING AND ON FIRE. I'm imagining that scene from Apocolypto where the guy holds up a quivering, still beating heart but ON FIRE. And then He wants everyone to put a picture of this thing up on their wall. 

How do these artists choose to depict that moment? 

By showing this wan little tame pink thing surrounded by neatly woven rose stems and with a candle flame coming out the top. Maybe a solitary drop of blood if the artist is feeling daring. All topped off by the expression of patient endurance mixed with ennui and disgust that people have when they're annoyed as heck but are trying to act civil on Jesus's face. Like the manager of a restaurant near the end of his shift when a customer demands special treatment because their fries came out warm instead of hot. 

We get anorexic heart Jesus with resting lower management face. I don't know how you take a man holding out His HUMAN HEART THAT'S BLEEDING AND SPURTING FIRE, I mean, c'mon, that's a very startling and arresting image, and get something so very lackluster and tame. 


Hearts on Fire 

For some reason, these types of images seem to fare much, much better than the previous type. Maybe because it becomes more of a symbol at that point, and the artist doesn't feel quite as constrained. These images tend to be more bold (both in color and detail) and intricate, though still reverent. 

 I'm curious to why that is, but I'm thankful for it. Perhaps artists feel less inclined to feel they're causing scandal with the disembodied heart showing passion than they would be showing the face of Christ showing passion. 

Though, to be fair, it can be hard to show a human face with strong emotion in a painting without it turning into something fake or ridiculous looking. 

I Think this Symbol is Pretty, But I have no Idea what the original context was

I've seen this one in wall art sold at my local grocery store, in various fashion items manufactured in the early 2000s, in tattoo art, and a couple other random places. 

I think this use of the symbol goes back to just how arresting the idea of a heart on fire is, and people seem to know instinctively that it symbolizes passionate love. It shows that it as a symbol carries a pretty big punch: it connects with people extremely well, even people who claim to be antagonistic towards Christianity. 





A Flannery O'Connor quote comes to mind, "To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling pictures." 

Sacred Heart imagery is meant to be startling. I think it's a good thing when it's liberated from Grandma's wall and allowed to be large, and red, and bleeding in our art and depictions. To tame it is to rob it of some of its power.