We have mountains of information about Joan, more than we do for any of her contemporaries, and yet all we know about her looks is from descriptions other people left on record. As reliable as those accountings are (they all describe her in pretty much the same way so there's no reason to doubt them), sadly no actual portrait of Joan has survived. Not that we know of, that is. What we know for a fact is that at least one painting was made at some point depicting Joan's real looks while she was alive, the so called Arras canvas. Joan herself mentions it during her trial when she's asked this seemingly mundane question:
"Have you never seen, nor had made, any images or picture of yourself and in your likeness?”
As usual Joan's answer is straight to the point:
“I saw at Arras a painting in the hands of a Scot: it was like me. I was represented fully armed, presenting a letter to my King, one knee on the ground. I have never seen, nor had made, any other image or painting in my likeness.”
Every syllable of the transcriptions of Joan's trial has been put under the microscope by now, and yet this bit is possibly one of the most overlooked. It was not overlooked at the time, mind you, it was indeed very carefully vetted by Joan's prosecutors, and much like many of the answers Joan gave during her interrogation this one leaves little to no room for (unbiased) interpretations. The answer is honest, there's no reason to believe she made up such a specific anecdote, and it puts to rest the notion that she may have commissioned a portrait of herself. The churchmen would have read that as enabling her own cult of personality, a very dangerous proposition in the context of her trial.
Where is the Arras canvas?
The billion dollars question. Tracking down the elusive painting seems like an impossible task, the clues that might help tracking it down may be scattered in many different places, too many perhaps, assuming they're there at all. Besides Joan's own words, the bits of information that are easily accessible are still extremely interesting. A footnote in "The Secret History of Dreaming" by Robert Moss might be a good place to start:
Historical records show that Joan's banner was indeed the work of a Scotsman named Hauves Pourlnois. He painted the banner while Joan was in Tours and we even know he was paid 25 livre tournois for the job. Does this mean Pourlnois painted the Arras canvas as well? not necessarily, but it is indeed a good guess. Another possible clue is found in "Power and Propaganda: Scotland, 1306-1488" written by Katie Stevenson, Professor and Vice-Principal at the University of St. Andrews, UK:
Did this passing Scot buy Pourlnois' canvas? is the passing Scot Pourlnois himself, who did not paint the canvas but instead acquired it from someone else? Is a dusty basement somewhere in Scotland the resting place of the only painting depicting the real Joan of Arc? The answer might be buried somewhere in the Rotuli scaccarii regum Scotorum (The exchequer rolls of Scotland) or the Compota Thesaurariorum Regum Scotorum (Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland).
The Scottish lead seems promising, but a possible twist is suggested by the late Régine Pernoud, a titan among scholars of Medieval studies especially in regard to Joan of Arc. In her book "Joan of Arc: Her Story" published in 1981, Pernoud writes:
Pernoud tags Père Doncoeur here, whose work on Joan of Arc is unquestionably some of the most valuable ever done. Is the Scottish lead simply the result of a scribal error? Was the only painting depicting the real Joan made in Reims instead? Perhaps it was. Perhaps it was indeed made by a Scottish painter the day Charles was crowned King of France. Perhaps this Scot then brought the canvas back home, or sold it to someone else who did.
Perhaps.
Needless to say, these are not the only clues that can be found in historical records regarding the Arras painting, not by a long shot. These are just a handful of interesting crumbs out of a trail that hopefully someday will lead us to the legendary lost canvas.
A special thanks to Katie Stevenson, Professor and Vice-Principal at the University of St. Andrews (UK) for kindly pointing me towards the right direction in my research on the Arras canvas, and thus helping me immensely with my work.
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