Objects

The heart is an ambiguous symbol; it is a sign of love, mercy and compassion, joy and sorrow. It symbolises conscience and courage, a source of spiritual enlightenment, truth and wisdom, thoughts and feelings. Teodor Bok's drawing depicting objects stuck in the heart evokes all these connotations. When looking from the top left, it is an arrow; below, there is a nail with a round head, a nail with a flat head, to which a vegetable is tied. A tear is at the bottom. On the right, successively from bottom to top, there is a feather with a nib, a stone, a hufnal, a bent nail with a round head, and a ladder.

The nail, pierced with an arrow, evokes both the popular image in the circle of Judeo-Christian civilisation of romantic love (heart pierced with Cupid's arrow) and the symbolism of religious worship: the love of God and people (God looks into the heart), the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an attribute of the saints.

Renata Piątkowska