HIDDEN MASTERPIECES: Holbein's "Henry VIII'

THE phenomenal growth of the world's museums means that any footloose traveler can now see ten times the masterpieces his great-grandfather had access to, even if that great-grandfather happened to be a duke. Guides to the major museums are easily come by, and visitors to Paris are not likely to miss the Louvre. But Europe also has great treasures still in private or semiprivate collections, secluded abbeys, obscure churches and castles that well repay the discriminating wanderer. TIME herewith begins a new color series of such Hidden Masterpieces.

Hans Holbein's first portrait of Henry VIII was a miniature, done in 1537 to win the King's good graces. Four hundred years later German Industrialist Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza bought the panel from Britain's Earl Spencer. Over loud protests from the London art world, he carried it off triumphantly to his villa on the Swiss side of Lake Lugano. Reproduced full-scale opposite, the picture smoothly reveals the great and terrible monarch in all his bejeweled, beplumed, begorged splendor. But Holbein at his most flattering could not help penetrating to a man's character: he has given Henry a killer's coldly reflective eyes.

The Thyssen collection of old masters runs to some 500 works, including dozens that rival even the Holbein in quality. But this banquet for the eyes is off the tourist track at Lugano, tucked away in a wing of Thyssen's cypress-shaded palazzo. Made public partly for tax purposes, the museum is not open all year or every day, but whoever gets to Lugano between April 1 and Nov. 1 can take the trolley to the Thyssen estate and present himself at the gates Friday through Monday for one of the treats of his life.

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