Sir Thomas More (1600s): Art, History and Details

Sir Thomas More (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

One of the most original of Renaissance thinkers, an influential politician at the court of Henry VIII, and, since 1935, a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Sir Thomas More also played an important role in the development of English portraiture through his patronage of Hans Holbein the Younger. Here More wears a so-called livery chain, a mark of his service to Henry VIII. He would eventually be beheaded in 1535, when he refused to support the king’s divorce and breach with the Catholic church. This miniature painted by a later follower of Holbein attests to the enduring resonance of More’s image and legacy.

Object facts

• Title: Sir Thomas More
• Date: 1600s
• Creator attribution: Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Portrait Miniature
• Technique: oil on wood in a gilt wood frame
• Dimensions: Framed: 8.6 x 8.6 x 1.3 cm (3 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 1/2 in.); Diameter: 6.5 cm (2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 6.7 x 6.4 cm (2 5/8 x 2 1/2 in.); Diameter of frame: 8 cm (3 1/8 in.)
• Collection: P - German before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1957.356

Collection credit

The Edward B. Greene Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Francis, Henry S. “A Miniature of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 4 (April 1959): 55–57.
• Francis, Henry. "The Stag Hunt." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 9 (November 1959): 198-205.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.