It is always hard to know what a person looked like if they lived in the Middle Ages. This is true for even famous people. For example, what did Geoffrey Chaucer look like?
The famous English poet who lived from 1343 to 1400 has left us his writings including The Canterbury Tales. But he does not write about his own appearance. Therefore, we need to turn to some of the earliest depictions of him in manuscripts and paintings, which date from the 15th and 16th centuries. In his work, A Mirror of Chaucer’s World, Roger Sherman Loomis examines five of these portraits:
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The Ellesmere Portrait
This is likely our earliest depiction of Chaucer, dating to the first or second decade of the fifteenth century. It is from an illuminated manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, in which all the major characters from that story are drawn. This version of Chaucer depicts Chaucer as a middle-aged man with a trimmed beard and a receding hairline. He is riding a horse while wearing a red robe and a black hat. Loomis adds that “hung from his neck is a case containing an implement, a pen or a pointel (a stylus for writing on waxed tablets) – presumably a token of his craft as a writer.”
The Hoccleve Portrait
Thomas Hoccleve (c.1369–1426) was an English poet and admirer of Chaucer. So much so that in his work Regement of Princes, he includes some words in memory of Chaucer. In one manuscript – British Library Harley MS 4866 – which was created in 1411 or 1412, Hoccleve includes one portrait of Chaucer, showing him with an inkhorn around his neck and holding a rosary in one hand. His other hand points to this portion of the text:
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Althogh his lyfe be queynt, the resemblaunce Of him hath in me so fressh lyflynesse, That, to putte othir men in remembraunce Of his persone, I have heere his lyknesse Do make, to this ende in sothfastnesse, That they that have of him lest thought and mynde, By this peynture may ageyn him fynde.
Since it is likely that Hoccleve had met Chaucer, many scholars believe this could be the most genuine representation of the English writer. Other depictions are also seemingly based on it.
The Harvard Portrait
Now on the display at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, this painting has been dated to the late fifteenth century. It shows Chaucer with a string of beads in one hand and a writing implement in the other. His coat of arms can be seen in the top left corner. Loomis notes that “it may be more authentic than the Bodleian painting since the beard is forked as in the earliest portraits, and the expression is somewhat more lifelike and slightly humorous.”
We know a few details about its provenance. On the back of the portrait is this inscription: “This picture was presented by Miss Frances Lambert to Benjamin Dyke on the 6th September 1803, to perpetuate the memory of her late invaluable relation, Thomas Stokes, Esq., of Llanshaw Court, in the county of Gloucester, where it was preserved for more than three centuries, as appears from the inventory of pictures in the possession of that ancient and respectable family…” The painting was donated to Harvard University in 1908.
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British Library MS Add. 5141
This version was drawn in the sixteenth century and shows Chaucer holding the beads and a writing instrument. Loomis explains that “in the upper right the date of death is mistakenly given as 1402, and below it is a daisy, presumably in reference to the poet’s professed devotion to that flower.”
Inside the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, one can find another portrait of Chaucer. It is entitled ‘Caucer 1400’. Loomis adds that “it is of crude workmanship and possesses little authority as a likeness. The hair and beard are darker in color, and the hood and robe much lighter.”
It is always hard to know what a person looked like if they lived in the Middle Ages. This is true for even famous people. For example, what did Geoffrey Chaucer look like?
The famous English poet who lived from 1343 to 1400 has left us his writings including The Canterbury Tales. But he does not write about his own appearance. Therefore, we need to turn to some of the earliest depictions of him in manuscripts and paintings, which date from the 15th and 16th centuries. In his work, A Mirror of Chaucer’s World, Roger Sherman Loomis examines five of these portraits:
The Ellesmere Portrait
This is likely our earliest depiction of Chaucer, dating to the first or second decade of the fifteenth century. It is from an illuminated manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, in which all the major characters from that story are drawn. This version of Chaucer depicts Chaucer as a middle-aged man with a trimmed beard and a receding hairline. He is riding a horse while wearing a red robe and a black hat. Loomis adds that “hung from his neck is a case containing an implement, a pen or a pointel (a stylus for writing on waxed tablets) – presumably a token of his craft as a writer.”
The Hoccleve Portrait
Thomas Hoccleve (c.1369–1426) was an English poet and admirer of Chaucer. So much so that in his work Regement of Princes, he includes some words in memory of Chaucer. In one manuscript – British Library Harley MS 4866 – which was created in 1411 or 1412, Hoccleve includes one portrait of Chaucer, showing him with an inkhorn around his neck and holding a rosary in one hand. His other hand points to this portion of the text:
Althogh his lyfe be queynt, the resemblaunce
Of him hath in me so fressh lyflynesse,
That, to putte othir men in remembraunce
Of his persone, I have heere his lyknesse
Do make, to this ende in sothfastnesse,
That they that have of him lest thought and mynde,
By this peynture may ageyn him fynde.
Since it is likely that Hoccleve had met Chaucer, many scholars believe this could be the most genuine representation of the English writer. Other depictions are also seemingly based on it.
The Harvard Portrait
Now on the display at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, this painting has been dated to the late fifteenth century. It shows Chaucer with a string of beads in one hand and a writing implement in the other. His coat of arms can be seen in the top left corner. Loomis notes that “it may be more authentic than the Bodleian painting since the beard is forked as in the earliest portraits, and the expression is somewhat more lifelike and slightly humorous.”
We know a few details about its provenance. On the back of the portrait is this inscription: “This picture was presented by Miss Frances Lambert to Benjamin Dyke on the 6th September 1803, to perpetuate the memory of her late invaluable relation, Thomas Stokes, Esq., of Llanshaw Court, in the county of Gloucester, where it was preserved for more than three centuries, as appears from the inventory of pictures in the possession of that ancient and respectable family…” The painting was donated to Harvard University in 1908.
British Library MS Add. 5141
This version was drawn in the sixteenth century and shows Chaucer holding the beads and a writing instrument. Loomis explains that “in the upper right the date of death is mistakenly given as 1402, and below it is a daisy, presumably in reference to the poet’s professed devotion to that flower.”
The Bodleian Portrait
Inside the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, one can find another portrait of Chaucer. It is entitled ‘Caucer 1400’. Loomis adds that “it is of crude workmanship and possesses little authority as a likeness. The hair and beard are darker in color, and the hood and robe much lighter.”
Further Readings:
Roger Sherman Loomis, A Mirror of Chaucer’s World (Princeton University Press, 1965)
David R. Carlson, “Thomas Hoccleve and the Chaucer Portrait,” Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 54:4 (1991), pp. 283-300
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