← Fame through time1600-1699
The 17th century
Whose working lives fell in the 17th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 17th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Rembrandt22 decades - 2
Caravaggio22 decades - 3
Johannes Vermeer3 decades - 4
Peter Paul Rubens22 decades - 5
Diego Velázquez20 decades - 6
Gian Lorenzo Bernini13 decades - 7
Artemisia Gentileschi18 decades - 8
Anthony van Dyck4 decades - 9
Nicolas Poussin22 decades - 10
Francisco de Zurbarán12 decades - 11
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo20 decades - 12
Georges de La Tour9 decades - 13
Frans Halsnot measured- - 14
Jusepe de Ribera18 decades - 15
Guido Reni22 decades - 16
Claude Lorrain18 decades - 17
Charles Le Brun22 decades - 18
Guercino22 decades - 19
Jan Brueghel the Elder0 decades - 20
Philippe de Champaigne22 decades - 21
Hyacinthe Rigaud19 decades - 22
Carel Fabritius0 decades - 23
Salvator Rosa22 decades - 24
Jan Steen22 decades - 25
Pietro da Cortona22 decades - 26
Gerard van Honthorst0 decades - 27
Rachel Ruysch0 decades - 28
Luca Giordano22 decades - 29
Godfrey Kneller0 decades - 30
Jacob van Ruisdael5 decades - 31
Judith Leyster0 decades - 32
Elisabetta Sirani21 decades - 33
Jacob Jordaens1 decades - 34
Domenichino22 decades - 35
Andrea Pozzo21 decades - 36
Jacques Callot21 decades - 37
Simon Vouet22 decades - 38
Alonso Cano22 decades - 39
Anna Maria van Schurman0 decades - 40
Peter Lely22 decades - 41
Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark0 decades
- 42
David Teniers the Younger0 decades - 43
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach10 decades - 44
Pieter de Hooch11 decades - 45
Mattia Preti22 decades - 46
Gerrit Dou0 decades - 47
Pierre Mignard I22 decades - 48
Juan Carreño de Miranda16 decades - 49
Hishikawa Moronobu0 decades - 50
Shitao6 decades - 51
Jan Brueghel the Younger0 decades - 52
Pieter Claesz0 decades - 53
Hendrick Avercamp0 decades - 54
Clara Peeters0 decades - 55
Bada Shanren5 decades - 56
Adriaen Brouwer0 decades - 57
Carlo Maratta22 decades - 58
Giovanni Baglione14 decades - 59
Aelbert Cuyp0 decades - 60
Gerard ter Borch0 decades - 61
Pierre Puget22 decades - 62
Fede Galizia8 decades - 63
Jan van Goyen4 decades - 64
Alessandro Algardi21 decades - 65
André Charles Boulle5 decades - 66
Francesco Solimena19 decades - 67
Frans Snyders0 decades - 68
Nicolas de Largillière3 decades - 69
Giovanni Lanfranco22 decades - 70
Andreas Schlüter18 decades - 71
Giovanni Battista Gaulli5 decades - 72
Adam Elsheimer13 decades - 73
Jan Davidsz. de Heemnot measured- - 74
Paulus Potter0 decades - 75
Gabriel Metsu0 decades - 76
Mary Beale0 decades - 77
Francesco Albani22 decades - 78
Sebastiano Ricci22 decades - 79
Giuseppe Cesari21 decades - 80
Meindert Hobbema0 decades - 81
Bernardo Strozzi22 decades - 82
Agostino Tassi19 decades - 83
Simon Ushakov0 decades - 84
Juan de Valdés Leal16 decades - 85
Willem Claesz. Hedanot measured- - 86
Ferdinand Bol2 decades - 87
Gerard de Lairesse1 decades - 88
Willem van de Velde the Youngernot measured- - 89
Maria van Oosterwijck0 decades - 90
Adriaen van Ostade1 decades - 91
William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kasselnot measured- - 92
Jan Lievens0 decades - 93
Antoine Coysevox8 decades - 94
Ambrosius Bosschaert0 decades - 95
Antonio Palomino22 decades - 96
Govert Flinck0 decades - 97
Dirck van Baburen0 decades - 98
Reza Abbasi0 decades - 99
Bartholomeus van der Helst0 decades - 100
Samuel van Hoogstraten0 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.