Johannes (Jan) Symonsz van der Beeck was a Dutch painter also known by his alias, Johannes Torrentius. His libertine ways, and purported membership in the Rosicruciab order, led to his 1627 arrest and torture as a religious non-conformist and an alleged blasphemer, heretic, atheist, and Satanist. The 25 January 1628 judgment from five noted advocates of The Hague pronounced him guilty of "blasphemy against God and avowed atheism, at the same time as leading a frightful and pernicious lifestyle." It was widely believed that the condemned Torrentius' influence had affected Jeronimus Cornelisz, who led a bloody mutiny aboard the VOC ship Batavia in 1629.

Born in Utrecht in 1804, Pieter van Oort was one of the most talented Dutch illustrators of animals and plants in the early nineteenth century. Because of his special talent, King William I sent him