Daniel Nys

Born in Wesel into a family of Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium), he moved to Venice in 1596.

[1] By 1615 he had made his fortune and possessed a major art collection which was described by Vincenzo Scamozzi, Giulio Cesare Gigli and Constantijn Huygens.

In 1622 he came into contact with Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua to whom Nijs began supplying luxury goods.

Nijs, in turn, was interested in acquiring the paintings in order to sell them to Charles I of Great Britain.

[3] Its works included:[4] Vincenzo II's successor Charles I of Gonzaga-Nevers was persuaded to sell statues and further paintings to Nijs, leading to the bankruptcy of the dealer.