Schildersbent Painting. The Bentvueghels were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720.
   They are also known as the Schildersbent. The members, which included painters, etchers, sculptors and poets, all lived in different parts of the city and came together for social and intellectual reasons.
   The group was well known for its drunken, Bacchic initiation rituals. These celebrations, sometimes lasting up to 24 hours, concluded with group marching to the church of Santa Costanza, known popularly at the time as the Temple of Bacchus.
   There they made libations to Bacchus before the porphyry sarcophagus of Constantina, which was considered to be his tomb because of its Bacchic motifs. A list of its members may still be seen in one of this church's side chapels.
   This practice was finally banned by Pope Clement XI in 1720. Although predominantly made up of Flemish and Dutch artists, a few other members were admitted, including Joachim von Sandrart and Valentin de Boulogne. Despite the rowdy nature of these initiations, an intellectual quality was maintained. Joachim von Sandrart, for example, wrote in his 1675-1679 book, Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau-, Bild und Malereikunste, that his baptism included reasoned discourses, undertaken by French and Italians, as well as by Germans and Netherlanders, each in his own tongue. Also Cornelis de Bruijn wrote about the ritua
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