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A 13th-Century Portrait of C. S. Lewis
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In a letter of April 1924 to his father, C. S.
Lewis wrote:
“Aunt Lily ... presented me with a print of an
old picture,
‘St Francis preaching before
Pope Honorious’ because,
she said, the Pope was
a portrait of me.”
(27 April 1924, Collected Letters vol. I,
p. 627)
“It is not one of her fads,” Lewis added, “for I
do really see the likeness myself.
I suppose nature has only a limited number of
faces to use after all.”
The two Lewis portraits are details from photos
taken in 1917 (right) and 1919 (left).
The portrait of Pope Honorius III (1216-1227) is
a detail from a fresco made at the end
of the 13th century by Giotto di Bondone in the
Basilica di San Francesco d’Assisi,
St Francis
preaching before Honorius III (click for larger
picture, 950 × 974)
