The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wtewael is by a long way the largest anywhere in the world.

Other highlights are many significant paintings by the Utrecht Caravaggisti, such as Gerard van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Brugghen.

[2] Both of them travelled to Rome in the early 17th century to study the works of the Italian master Caravaggio.

In the previous generation, as well as Wtewael, Abraham Bloemaert and the portraitist Paulus Moreelse were the most significant Utrecht painters, with Jan van Scorel still earlier.

The ship was found in 1930 near the Van Hoornekade in Utrecht and was put in the cellar of the 16th-century part of the museum building.