BENTVUEGHELS

The 'Bentvueghels' (Dutch for "Birds of a Feather") were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the 'Schildersbent' ("painters' clique").

Contents

Activities

The Bentvueghels and the Accademia di San Luca

Known Members

Notes

Sources

Activities

The members, which included painters, etchers, sculptors and poets, all lived in different parts of the city (mostly the parishes of Santa Maria Popolo and San Lorenzo in Lucina in the north of the city) and came together for social and intellectual reasons. The group was well-known for its drunken, Bacchic initiation rituals (paid for by the initiate). These celebrations, sometimes lasting up to 24 hours, concluded with group marching to the church of Santa Costanza, known popularly at this time as the Temple of Bacchus. There they prayed before the porphyry sarcophagus of Constantina (now in the Vatican Museums), which was considered it to be Bacchus' tomb because of its Bacchic motifs, and made a wine offering to the god. (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.
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 Malereikünste'' (''German Academy of the Noble Arts of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting''), that his "baptism" included "reasoned discourses, undertaken by French and Italians, as well as by Germans and Netherlanders, each in his own tongue."^[1]

The Bentvueghels and the Accademia di San Luca

The Bentvueghels were frequently at odds with Rome's Accademia di San Luca ("Academy of Saint Luke"), which had the purpose of elevating the work of "artists" above that of craftsman. Traditionally, the low-brow qualities of the society's activities have been emphasized over their intellectual and artistic pursuits. David Levine suggests instead that "academic art-pedagogy, with its emphasis on repetitive copying, might well have struck members of the Bent [the Bentvueghels] as a low, mechanical process in contrast to their truly humanistic approach."^[2]

Known Members

The earliest-known members are commemorated in an anonymous drawing in the Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), which was made about 1620, include Cornelis van Poelenburch, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Dirck van Baburen, Paulus Bor, Cornelis Schut and Simon Ardé.^[3] Upon initiation, members were given aliases that were often classical gods and heroes, such as Bacchus, Cupid, Hector, Meleager, Cephalus, Pyramus, Orpheus, etc. Sometimes, however, the aliases were witty or semi-obscene in keeping with the general activities of the society.
Some of the members with known aliases:

★ Dirck van Baburen - "Biervlieg"

★ Pieter van Laer - "Il Bamboccio" and "Snuffelaer"

★ Paulus Bor - "Orlando"

★ Bartholomeus Breenbergh - "Het Fret"

★ Samuel van Hoogstraten - "Batavier"

★ Jan Linsen - "Hermafrodiet"

★ Herman van Swanevelt - "Heremiet"

★ Cornelis van Poelenburgh - "Satyr"

★ Jan Baptist Weenix - "Ratel"

★ Wouter Crabeth II - "Almanack"
A few non-Dutch speaking members were admitted, including Joachim von Sandrart and Valentin de Boulogne.

Notes

1. Levine (1990), p. 217
2. Levine (1990), p. 219
3. Levine (''Grove'')

Sources

★ Some of the information here is taken from the corresponding Dutch article about the Bentvueghels.

★ Levine, David A., "The Bentvueghels: 'Bande Académique"," in ''IL60: Essays Honoring Irving Levin on his Sixtieth Birthday'', ed. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. New York: Italica Press, 1990 (pp. 207-219). ISBN 0934977186.

★ Levine, David A., "Schildersbent [Bent]," ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, [March 15, 2007].