Nicolaes Tulp depicted in the painting can be dated to 16 January 1632; the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was official City Anatomist, permitted only one public dissection a year and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal. The criminal is identified as the robber Aris Kindt. Rembrandt would later make a painting of Tulp's successor in 1656 "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Jan Deijman". Since the painting of Tulp's predecessor in 1619, "The Osteology Lesson of Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz" was a group portrait around a skeleton, it is clear that the subject of a dead
Dirck Tulp changed his lifestyle and prevented dismissal. In 1676, he was made a baronet by Charles II, paying a large amount of money. He was appointed as colonel in the Schutterij, the Dutch volunteer city guard. As a widower, he remarried Katharina Resteau. From that marriage came four children, but both sons, twins, died young. His second wife was painted twice. With the death of Dirck Tulp the male line of the Tulp family died out. Dirck's daughter would later marry the mayor of Amsterdam, and specialist in trade with Russia, Nicolaes Witsen. Dirck Tulp Dirck or Diederik Tulp (1624–1682) was