Nicolaes Tulp Nicolaes Tulp Nicolaes Tulp (9 October 1593 – 12 September 1674) was a Dutch surgeon and mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character and as the subject of Rembrandt's famous painting "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp". Born Claes Pieterszoon, he was the son of a prosperous merchant active in civic affairs in Amsterdam. From 1611 to 1614 he studied medicine in Leiden. When he returned to Amsterdam he became a respected doctor and in 1617 he married Aagfe Van der Voegh. An ambitious young man, he adopted the tulip as his heraldric emblem
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