Rembrandt
1606 – 1669 · 63 years · Amsterdam · Europe
Supreme master of the Dutch Golden Age and of light and shadow: The Night Watch, The Return of the Prodigal Son and dozens of self-portraits.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: Rembrandt · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 10 years older
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 42 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 32 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 37 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 59 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 42 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 23 years younger
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 10 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 11 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 28 years older
Middle East
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 6 years younger
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 35 years older
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 5 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 17 years older
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 6 years older
- Ibrahim the Mad — sultan nicknamed 'the Mad', 9 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 23 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 3 years older
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 39 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 50 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 48 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 63 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 14 years older
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 12 years younger
- Tokugawa Iemitsu — shogun who closed Japan to the Europeans, 2 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 29 years older
Americas
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 42 years younger
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 39 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 10 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 67 years older
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 3 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 1, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 3, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 4, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 6, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 7, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 12, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 18, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 26, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 38, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 42, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 43, Europe
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — aged 48, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — aged 56, Africa