Theodoor van Thulden (1606–12 July 1669) was a painter, draughtsman and engraver from 's-Hertogenbosch. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, mythological subjects, allegorical works and portraits. He was active in Antwerp, where he had trained, as well as in Paris and his native 's-Hertogenbosch. Life Theodoor van Thulden was born in 's-Hertogenbosch where he was baptized on 9 August 1606 in the St. John's Cathedral as "Dirrick". Van Thulden was the oldest of at least nine children of whom one called Franchois would also become a painter. His father Jacob Gerits van Tulden (1575-1630) was trained as a silversmith, but earned his living as a cloth merchant. His mother Heylwich (Heylke) van Meurs was a daughter of the silversmith Dierck Aerts van Moers. The family was well-off. Around 1621 van Thulden left his hometown for Antwerp where he became a pupil of Abraham van Blijenberch. Van Blijenberch was a reputed portrait painter who had previously worked in London as a painter to King James I and other members of the court. After van Blijenberch's death in 1623 van Thulden remained in Antwerp. Some art historians have suggested that during this period he could have been a pupil or assistant of Peter Paul Rubens. Others have questioned such apprenticeship with Rubens as van Thulden's style remained beholden to Mannerist tendencies into the 1630s and betrayed initially no influence from Rubens' Baroque idiom. In 1626 van Thulden became a master in the Guild of St. Luke of Antwerp. Between 1631 and 1633 or 1634, he stayed in Paris where he studied the works of the Mannerist masters of the School of Fontainebleau. This study reinforced his already strong Mannerist tendencies. This is reflected in a series of 58 prints depicting Odysseus' journeys which he engraved around this time. These prints were made after the paintings of Primaticcio and Niccolo dell'Abbate in the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris. In 1635 van Thulden returned to Antwerp where on 24 July 1635 he married Maria van Balen, daughter of the prominent Antwerp painter Hendrick van Balen the Elder (1575-1632) and sister of the painters Hendrick the Younger and Jan van Balen. The godfather at his wife's baptism had been no one less than Peter Paul Rubens. Theodoor and Maria had one child, a daughter named Maria Anna, who was baptized in Antwerp on 7 May 1636 and died between 1652 and 1669. It is