Jan Six

Thanks to his father-in-law, he became magistrate of family law and various other appointments on the city council, eventually becoming mayor of Amsterdam himself in 1691, aged 73.

Six remained a devotee of the arts all his life and wrote plays himself, the most famous being Medea, published in 1648 (with an etching by Rembrandt), and Onschult (Innocence) in 1662.

In the same year the Dutch translation of Baldassarre Castiglione's Il libro del Cortegiano was dedicated to Six.

His collection of paintings, drawings, etchings, and other artefacts (including many from his wife's family) were popular in his lifetime.

The Six collection has been the subject of controversy in the Netherlands for decades, because though the house on the Amstel received subsidy from the Dutch government and was open to the public for visiting hours, the house was always also used as a home, and the number of visitors was limited.