Angel with a heart left view statue

An angel holding a heart originated in the iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — the devotion popularised in the seventeenth century by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, whose visions placed angels around the wounded heart of Christ as eternal attendants. From there the motif spread to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to a thousand cards, statues and paintings of guardian angels presenting hearts as emblems of human love offered up. The left and right views form a paired set, like the bookends — together they frame whatever lies between them with affection.