BABUREN, DIRCK VAN

(c. 1595-1624)

   Leading figure among the Utrecht Caravaggists. Baburen went to Rome in c. 1612 where he came upon the works of Caravaggio and his close follower, Bartolomeo Manfredi. He remained there until 1622, painting mainly religious scenes. When he returned to Utrecht, Baburen almost completely abandoned religious art, concentrating instead on genre works, though he remained faithful to the Caravaggist mode. His Procuress (1622; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) is among his best-known works. Thematically, it relates to Caravaggio's cardsharps and fortune tellers. Visually, it borrows Caravaggio's heavy chiaroscuro and use of three-quarter figures that occupy most of the pictorial space. Not only did Baburen adopt the basic elements of the Caravaggist mode, but he also quoted directly from specific paintings by the Italian master. His old procuress is, in fact, based on Abra, the old servant in Caravaggio's Judith andHolofernes (c. 1598; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica).