I think that being the Mayor of Norwich, and not just once but twice, in the early sixteenth century would have certainly been quite an intriguing role. Robert Jannys (1480-1530) was a grocer who evidently did quite well, he got himself involved in local politics and then reached the dizzy heights of being Sheriff as well as the Mayor. He made a lot of money, a great chunk of which he spent on supporting local churches, particularly St George Colegate (where his rather decadent tomb still stands), although I wonder how much of that was in hope that he would have a prosperous afterlife.
This cheery little corpse dressed in rags in the painting is a reminder of mortality, that perhaps even the richest of people at that time could become very poor overnight. The artist isn’t known, but it was painted between 1600 and 1650 and placed in the Guildhall, another institution to which Jannys had donated a significant amount. There’s an inscription on the painting which reads “For all welth, worship and prosperite fierce death.”
The British Museum have this print from 1845 in their collection, although he seems to have been given a thinner face here.