This celebration of love and all lovers has gradually become a household name in our country, especially among the younger generation, and thus complements our more traditional May 1st – the time of love... Although many people today view this holiday primarily as a custom imported from the West, it actually has purely European roots and is based on Roman and early Christian traditions.

The story of St. Valentine is still shrouded in mystery. Where did the legend of St. Valentine come from? According to most historians, Valentine was probably a bishop of Terni who lived in the 3rd century. There is still uncertainty about the life of this saint. There are two legends in which the lives of two people with the same name are probably intertwined. The first legend claims that he was executed because of love. Emperor Marcus Aurelius Claudius II. during his reign abolished marriage because he did not want men to be distracted from military duties. But Valentine, despite the ban, secretly married couples in love, thereby signing his death sentence and was executed on February 14, 269.

The second legend suggests that Valentine died because of his healing abilities. He managed to heal the son of the famous rhetorician Crato. According to legend, he prayed for the boy until God heard him and miraculously healed the son. Roman senators accused Valentine of malpractice and, on the order of the prefect, he was thrown into prison and beheaded.

Another theory is that the feast of Saint Valentine is likely derived from the Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival associated with pastoralism, fertility, and ritual purification, held in mid-February.

Many of the current legends about Saint Valentine originated in 14th-century England, when the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle of friends first began to associate February 14th with romantic love.

Today, there are many traditions associated with Valentine's Day – and they are certainly not "inventions" of modern times. For example, the popular gift-giving of flowers is derived directly from the life of St. Valentine. According to legend, he presented young couples with colorful bouquets from the bishop's garden. The ancient custom of sending declarations of love, so-called valentines, to a loved one on Valentine's Day originates from the British Isles. On this day, gifts, flowers, sweets and cards with the theme of a stylized heart as a symbol of love are traditionally sent or given. Whether we support this holiday or not, let's not let Valentine's Day be spoiled by the ubiquitous advertising kitsch and take it as an excuse to celebrate this most beautiful human emotion.

From the collections of the OGV in Jihlava, today we present an ink drawing called "State of the Heart" by Alena Nádvorníková, née Bretšnajdrová (November 12, 1942, Lipník nad Bečvou – October 3, 2023, Prague), who was a Czech poet, painter and theorist of surrealism. She studied Czech and art theory and education at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc (1959–1964). In 1968, she received her PhD and taught the history of modern art there, with breaks, until 1996. In 1978, she married a Frenchman, but in 1987 she moved to Prague, where she lived until her death. In the years 1987–1990 she worked as an editor at the Prague publishing house Odeon, from 1997 she devoted herself exclusively to her own work and editorial and exhibition activities, she was the curator of many exhibitions and the author of several poetry collections. She concentrated her theoretical works dealing with surrealism and the so-called original art (l’art brut) in the collection „K surrealismu“. She was above all an excellent draftsman, mainly devoted to drawing with ink, pen and brush. Since 1972 she was a member of the Surrealist Group, since 2000 a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and from 1994–2007 a member of the SVU Mánes.

Jana Bojanovská, February 14, 2025