Nicolaes Tulp attended by prominent learned men, who exchanged ideas about anatomy and the chemical processes of the human body. As befits a new praelector, the Guild commissioned a new group portrait of the prominent councilmen and guildmasters. Rembrandt, himself a young man of 26 and new to the city, won this commission and made a famous painting of him: "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp". This painting, which now hangs in the Mauritshuis museum of the Hague, depicts Tulp dissecting such a criminal's forearm. There has been much speculation as to why the dissection began on the forearm. Rembrandt's event
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