Artistic Imagery for St. Valentine's Day
The National Gallery of Art offers both a painting and a sculpture of traditional figures for St. Valentine's Day, beyond the red hearts.
From the time most of us are old enough to wield crayons, safety scissors and a bottle of glue, we mark St. Valentine's Day with decorations consisting of hearts, flowers, and the ever-mischievous Roman god Cupid - though not images of St. Valentine himself. Originally Valentine's Day was a Christian feast day first declared in the year 496 A.D. to commemorate the lives of two (or possibly three) martyrs named Valentine. During the Middle Ages, popular belief came to hold that the birds began to pair off on the Feast of St.Valentine, and over time this grew into the association with romantic love and the promise of spring not being too far away. From the time of Chaucer we know that people would send love poems to each other on Valentine'…
