Heart Colors for the Living Dead

The heart, a vital organ that sustains life, is often depicted in art and literature with a certain color. But what about the heart in the context of death? It's an unsettling thought that has nonetheless captivated artists, writers, and scientists throughout history. Let's explore the fascinating and often grim tradition of associating the heart with death and its various colors.

This exploration takes us from ancient times to modern art, shedding light on cultural beliefs, historical events, and psychological themes. By understanding the heart's color in death, we can gain insights into our collective humanity and how we grapple with mortality.

The Heart as a Symbol inDeath: Historical Perspectives

The heart's connection to death is ancient and profound. In many cultures, the heart was believed to be the seat of the soul. Therefore, its cessation signified the end of life and the beginning of the afterlife's journey. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, depicted the heart as a scale against which the deceased's soul was weighed. The color of the heart in this context was often depicted in hieroglyphics as red or black, symbolizing life and death respectively.

In medieval Europe, the heart in death was often depicted as black or shrouded, reflecting the somber mood of the times. This was influenced by Christian beliefs in the sin and corruption of humanity, visualized in stained glass and religious art.

The Black Heart of Grief

The black heart is a powerful symbol of grief and loss. It can be found in various forms of art, from traditional black-and-white photography to contemporary graphic novels. The black heart may symbolize the emotional numbness or intense sorrow felt by those left behind after a death. It could also represent the hopelessness or despair some people feel at the inevitability of their own death or the death of loved ones.

Artists like Käthe Kollwitz and Gustav Klimt used the black heart to convey deep emotional pain and despair. Kollwitz's prints, such as "Das schwarze Herz" (The Black Heart), depict a grief-stricken mother embracing her dead child. Klimt's paintings, like "Death and Life," feature a dark, pulsating heart at their center, representing the inextricable link between life and death.

The Heart as a Rebis: Life and DeathUnited

The Rebis (Latin for "renewed bis"), is a symbol found in alchemy that represents the union of opposites, including life and death. In some depictions, the Rebis is dual-faced, one side representing life (often depicted as a luminous, colored heart) and the other, death (shown as a dark, withered heart). The color of the dead heart in this context is often black, signifying the morte, or shadow side of the self.

The dualistic nature of the Rebis reflects the human experience, where life and death coexist. This symbol is a poignant reminder that death is an inherent part of life, and both are necessary for transformation and growth.

The Heart and Death in Modern Popular Culture

In contemporary culture, the heart's association with death is vivid and varied, reflecting our complex relationship with mortality. From eerie art installations to zombie heartbeats, we cannot help but be drawn to the macabre and the morbid.

One example is artist Marc Quinn's "Siren" sculpture, featuring two people locked in an eternal embrace, their bodies gradually replaced with amoebic forms as they sink into the sea. Their black, heart-shaped forms symbolize the finality of death and the eternal pull of the ocean.

The Heart of a Zombie

In zombie culture, the heart plays a pivotal role. Unlike in the living, a zombie's heart doesn't beat—it's just a useless muscle. Yet, it's often the target in zombie Apocalypse scenarios, a nod to the way the heart was traditionally seen as the seat of life. The absence of a heartbeat symbolizes the deadness of the zombie, while also highlighting the underlying fear of death and decay.

Shows like "The Walking Dead" and "iZombie" explore this theme, with their characters grappling with the loss of their heartbeats and the moral implications of killing once-living humans.

The Broken Heart of Loss and Memory

A broken heart is more than just an idiomatic expression. It can signify the loss of a loved one, the shattering of one's identity, or the numbing sorrow after a traumatic event. Broken hearts are depicted in art as fractured, discolored, or even missing. The color of these broken hearts often ranges from pale gray to dark, rotting black.

Artist Kelli Macheses' "Heartbroken" series, for example, features stark, Shockwave-rendered hearts, their surfaces pitted and broken, symbolizing the pain of a lost love. This interpretation echoes the deeply personal, even familial feeling of grief, making the symbol universally relatable.

In the end, the heart's color in death reflects humanity's enduring fascination with the mysterious, the sorrowful, and the ineffable. Whether depicted as black, broken, or united in the Rebis, the heart's representation in death reveals as much about our hopes and fears as it does about the psyche of the artwork's creator. After all, death is not just an end; it's a beginning of something new and unknown. As such, the heart's association with death continues to captivate and inspire, today and into the future.