I live on the site of St Thomas More’s home in Chelsea. It was here that Holbein drew the sketches for the celebrated More family portrait. The sketches survive; but Holbein’s finished image, sadly, is lost. It was not a canvas or board, but a huge linen wall-hanging, about nine feet high and twelve feet wide.
In the 1590s Rowland Lockey made various copies of this image, with sometimes major adjustments in the composition. The best of these ‘reinterpretations’, from 1593, now hangs at Nostell Priory in West Yorkshire.
Margaret, Thomas’s favourite daughter, sits at the front of this group, holding a book in her lap, with her fingers pointing very precisely to some specific lines. There have been two puzzles. Were these lines present and given such prominence in Holbein’s original (if so, presumably on More’s instructions)? And what would their significance be?
John Guy, in his book A Daughter’s Love that I referred to a few posts ago, thinks he has the answer:
What Margaret holds up to view is no less than Seneca’s classic defence of the ‘middle way’ or unambitious life, the passage in which he counterpoints the security of a lack of ambition with the dangers of a public career.
His message is about the relationship of human beings and fate. No one can predict what will happen to those who enter the counsels of princes. Fate is an irrevocable series of causes and effects with which not even the gods can interfere. Rather than urge an honest man to take the plunge, Seneca points out to him the perils of high office and the inevitability of fate.
Using Plato’s metaphor in The Republic of the ship of state, he says if he were left to his own devices, he would trim his sails to the light westerly winds: ‘May soft breezes, gently blowing, unvarying, carry my untroubled barque along; may life bear me on safely, running in middle course.’
Most compellingly, Seneca cites the example of Icarus who, attempting to escape from prison with his father, Daedalus, flew too close to the sun so that the wax melted on his wings and he fell into the sea, where he drowned. And it is to the very line in which Seneca describes how Icarus ‘madly sought the stars’ that Margaret points with her finger. [175]
I’m not discouraging people from going into politics – far from it! But it is fascinating to discover the coded warnings given by someone as astute and involved as More to those who seek high office.
Bridges and Tangents 
Nice to see this after the depiction of More in Wolf Hall which is – and perhaps Hilary Mantel being consciously contrary – rather unsympathetic.
I immediately thought of Wolf Hall too! I don’t know much about Thomas More, so his depiction in Wolf Hall was startling. Wolf Hall is a superlative piece of writing. The relationship between More and Cromwell was for me the most memorable part of the book, and some of its most powerful narrative and imagery are in scenes when they are together. More – privileged in background, education, wealth, knowledge and privileged in having time to reflect and think. Cromwell – abused, a fighter, opportunist and self-made man. In one scene More is imprisoned in the tower and suffering. He implores Cromwell “What harm have I done?” “What harm?” Cromwell replies and proceeds to list all the men and women tortued and/or put to death through More. In another scene Cromwell visits a man who had been tortued, and who now lies disabled, bed-ridden and gasping for breath. I add however that the book is written from the viewpoint of Cromwell and we live in his head and read his thoughts.
Sorry to rabbit on about Wolf Hall but it does relate to the blog and I shall get to the point! It does make you think about politics and political systems. We see the wheels of politics continuously turning and the powers of some fall and of others rise. The back-slapping and the back-stabbing. We know the fate of More and Cromwell. Neither played the ‘middle way’. Neither would squash their amibitions or intelligence. Politics does call for arrogance in that utter self-belief and in one’s views and that they will be heard!
The portrait of More and his family is unusual because one’s attention is drawn straight away to his daughter Margaret. Everyone faces towards her, though no-one looks at her. Maybe that’s how life is, if lived the ‘middle way’!
Thanks Mary Jane and Radha – must read this book!