The young deceased artist Dirck van Baburen, who reached great fame at an early point in his career, is regarded one of the best Utrecht Caravaggisti.
Dirck Jaspersz. van Baburen was born son of a well-known family from Wijk around 1594/95. His father was in services for the vicomtesse of Utrecht, baroness Gertruijd van Bronckhorst van Battenburg.
As far as the young boy´s education was concerned, the van Baburen family invested quite a bit in him. In 1611 Dirk van Baburen was student of Paulus Moreelse in Utrecht. At that point he had almost completed his apprenticeship, because Dirck van Baburen traveled to Italy a little later.
In Rome Dirck van Baburen was in circles around the Caravaggist Manfredi and received many commissions. Not only private people bought paintings by Dirck van Baburen, the young artist also woked for people of note such as the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and cardinal Borghese. Together with de Haen, Dirck van Baburen created important paintings for San Pietro in Montorio in Rome. For this church he also made the piece "The Entombment" (1617), which shows how much Dirck van Baburen stands in the tradition of Caravaggio. This work gained quite some fame and was much copied in Italy.
Presumably around 1622, perhaps already in 1620, Dirk Baburen went back to Utrecht, where the famous "Utrecht Caravaggisti" would form, not least for his influence. In those days Dirck van Baburen often met with Hendrick Ter Brugghen. It is assumed that they shared a studio and that they passed on Caravaggio´s accomplishments and the "manfrediana methodus" to a circle of students.
Paintings by Dirck van Baburen were soon highly popular in Holland. They were often copied and widely spread through re-engravings by Cornelis Bloemaert, Cryspin de Passe and Johann Friedrich Leonart.
Dirck Jaspersz. van Baburen did not enjoy much of his success, he died at the young age of 30 in Utrecht in 1624.