Nicolás Omazur

Nicolas Omazur was a Flemish merchant from Antwerp who settled in Seville, wrote poetry, and built one of the great private picture collections of the city, more than 200 paintings, over 30 of them by Murillo, his close friend. Murillo painted him in 1672 with one hand resting on a skull. That skull turns a merchant's portrait into a vanitas, a reminder that wealth and reputation do not last. Originally a painted frame ran around the image carrying a Latin verse that told the viewer to look at Omazur and at death together, and to see the skull as their own face to come. The canvas was later trimmed and that inscription lost, so today the skull makes the point on its own.