 According to the contemporary Flemish biographer Karel van Mander Pourbus intended to travel to Italy in 1566, a trip taken by many of his fellow artists at the time, but abandoned his plans after traveling from Antwerp to Ghent to visit the painter-poet Lucas de Heere.Karel van Mander was at the time a pupil of de Heere.Van Mander recounts that Pourbus clearly did not have his heart in his trip to Italy as he had lost it to the niece of his master.