The elegant dress of this wealthy family depicted in the portrait Sir Thomas More and His Family stands in sharp contrast to the simple unfinished clothes mandated in Utopia. Most striking are old Judge More's bright scarlet robes of office, which remind us that Utopia has no judiciary separate from its senate and princeps. Sir Thomas's gold chain and red-velvet sleeves put him in the company of those Anemolian ambassadors ridiculed by Utopian children, as would the gold jewelry and beautiful attire accented with gold brocade of More's wife and daughters. The humor represented by the family monkey and the professional “fool” in the painting have no parallels in humorless Utopia.

More's secretary, John Harris, stands in the doorway with an official document in hand, reminding us that Utopia does not have the secretarial trade, but it does have slaves.

The beautiful tapestry on the table and the rich gold and green draperies on the wall represent other trades excluded from Utopia, along with the craftsmen of the newfangled clock or the fine woodcarving seen in this portrait.