Thomas More was an humanist scholar, author, and statesman, served Henry VIII. After he refused to subscribe to the Act of Supremacy making the King head of the Church of England, he was convicted of high treason and beheaded. Venerated by the Catholic Church as a martyr, More was beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935 on the 400th anniversary of his death. Holbein’s sympathy for the man whose guest he was upon first arriving in England is apparent in the Frick portrait. His brilliant rendering of the rich fabrics and adornments make this one of Holbein’s best and most popular paintings. Various versions of the portrait exist, but this is undoubtedly the original. (http://elhurgador.blogspot.nl/2013/11/hans-holbein-el-joven-retratos-i-pintura.html)