Background
He was trained by his father, a painter known as Dooven Barent, or deaf Barent, and in 1555, at the age of twenty-one, Barendsz travelled to Italy.
He was trained by his father, a painter known as Dooven Barent, or deaf Barent, and in 1555, at the age of twenty-one, Barendsz travelled to Italy.
During his seven-year stay there, Karel van Mander tells us that he was "nursed at the great Titian"s bosem."
Van Mander further lists a Table and a Christmas piece in the possession of the Franciscans in Gouda, and a copy of a tronie by Titian, in the possession of Pieter Isaacsz (1569–1625), an Amsterdam painter and art dealer. His chapel piece voor the Amsterdam militia, called a Fall of Lucifer by Mander, was destroyed in the beeldenstorm, but his militia portrait for the same group that hung in their meeting hall survived. He died in Amsterdam.
He was a good musician and his most notable work, among various other pieces Van Mander describes that he painted in Amsterdam, was a Judith.