Pompeius Occo (1483-1537) was a German merchant and banker who settled in Amsterdam around 1510. He made his fortune as a representative of the German banking house Fugger. Occo was a cultured man. In his house, known as 'the Paradise', on Kalverstraat, he founded a large library. He was aware that wordly wealth was temporary: the skull is a reference to death and the pink in his hand refers to the resurrection. Such a portrait, not part of a Christian scene, was new for that time. Dirck Jacobsz was the first in Amsterdam to paint portraits of the middle class. He was the son of the painter Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, from whom he learnt his profession.