Hans Holbein's Sir Thomas More – a radical hero portrayed by a Renaissance genius

A radical hero is portrayed by British art’s German Renaissance genius. When Holbein first came from Basel to Britain he went to see Thomas More, carrying a letter of introduction from the great Renissance thinker Erasmus. More put him up in his house to portray him and his family. More is the author of Utopia, the witty work of vision that imagines an ideal society and is the founding work of British socialism. He was executed in 1535 for putting his conscience ahead of his king on the great question of Henry VIII’s divorce. Illustration: Francis G Mayer/Corbis