When we visualise the personalities of Henry VIII’s court – and, for better or worse, they were very large personalities indeed – it’s almost always a picture by Holbein that comes to mind. The unforgettable portraits of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell that face each other in the Frick Collection in New York, tell us everything we need to know.
It’s the same with everyone he pictured – in a few lines, we encounter a living human being, as if the five hundred years that have passed since are just a trifle. His sideways-looking Thomas Wyatt is full of watchful menace. Archbishop Warham's weary tortoise face suggests he can see how things are going, and it’s not good. Holbein’s eye picked up character and his hand drew it in beautiful clear lines, as if he couldn’t help himself.
