Valentine 1845 - 1875

Curator: This piece, simply titled "Valentine," is from between 1845 and 1875. This card, housed here at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gives us insight into the romantic expressions and societal expectations of that period. Editor: It’s incredibly intricate! Look at the complexity of the paper cutting. The use of the pristine white against that pale-yellow background lends an almost ethereal, heavenly air. It speaks to the idealization of love, wouldn't you agree? Curator: Absolutely. The aesthetic clearly places emphasis on purity and innocence, vital components of courtship during the Victorian era. Note also the strategic deployment of religious symbolism, with a bride and groom framed within the walls of a beautiful cathedral, symbolizing not just love, but sacramental and community sanctioned union. Editor: Indeed, the architecture serves to highlight the relationship, providing structural support in both form and function. The small child offering the posy of flowers... Her posture, and position along the vertical axis seem important? Almost representative of youthful innocence giving way to maturity and an offering to the promise of matrimony. Curator: Very insightful. Mass production of sentimental imagery such as this was becoming more prevalent. This card indicates how symbols of virtue, religious imagery, and sentimental affectations became commodified and distributed broadly to normalize and promote particular understandings of love, marriage, and propriety during the nineteenth century. Editor: Yet, amidst the mass production you mention, we shouldn't dismiss the skill behind the card's ornamentation. Look at the balance achieved in the composition and also note the layering effect! From a visual perspective it draws the eye through each plane, culminating at that architectural apex and hinting that, perhaps, that which cannot be visually described in words of the Victorian experience: The intangible sense of love! Curator: A convincing argument, and a useful reminder of how artistic creations inevitably both reflect and shape our socio-cultural understandings. Editor: Precisely! Leaving one with perhaps, not just a sentimental experience of 'Valentine' - but instead one that evokes further inquiry.