lots of the messengers shown in medieval art seem deformed or fat or smaller than average - but don't be fooled, the real messengers of the day had to be real tough nuts, they wouldn't have looked like this wimpy guy here. In most artistic evidence (tapestries, ceramics mainly) the messengers are not the focal point of the art, they are almost always shown with a king, lord, or some other person of high social standing. The artists were obliged to make the king or lord look as good as possible, one of the ways they exaggerated the physical perfection was to contrast with characters that were less than perfect... resulting in misleading evidence, and unfair stereotypes...
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