Is This Portrait a Miracle? (Update and Correction)

To add to the mystery of the question I posed here, I’ve found out something else from when I drew the portrait about which my piece tells.

The piece — provocatively entitled: “Is This Portrait a Miracle” — tells of when I drew a portrait 16 years ago. In that column, I mentioned that my purpose was to draw Jesus from my own imagination. I was mistaken.

I went back to my notes(1) and discovered that I had actually set out to draw the apostle Peter from my own imagination, but using the description of Peter by Sholem Asch in his great book, The Apostle(2).

So that means that the portrait that had so disappointed me when I did it 16 years ago, turned out to be a fair drawing of the actor who played Saint Peter in the movie “Killing Jesus” — sixteen years after I drew it!

Trust me, it was a jarring experience to see my portrait looking out at me from the television screen 16 years after having done it.

— xPraetorius

Notes:

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(1) It was during a phase in my life, when I was trying to teach myself to do portraits. I’d set out to do a portrait, and take notes on each one, so that whatever I learned I could refer back to later on. It was in these notes that I discovered the error in my recollection.

(2) It’s historical/biographical fiction about Saint Paul, but of course contains descriptions of the other disciples also, with Saint Peter prominent among them. Highly, highly recommended!