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| Anonymous Netherlandish painter Inauguration ceremonies in Rome for new members of the Bentvueghels ca. 1660 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"The Bentvueghels is the name of the group of 17th-century Netherlandish artists who banded together in Rome for social and cultural reasons. This group existed for about 100 years, from around 1620 to 1720. The meetings were interspersed with meals, drinking bouts and initiation ceremonies. If one of their number was in need – financial or social – the group provided support. The group culture was most evident in the rituals that accompanied the inauguration of a new member – known as 'green' or 'novice'. However, the association was not institutionalized to the extent that they had their own building, committee or written rules. The meetings were held in a room in an inn. There was only ever any form of hierarchy at the moment of the initiation and this, like the rituals themselves and the regulations, were intended as parody. As far as their contacts with the authorities were concerned, there were often clashes, sometimes tolerance, but never recognition. There is known to have been a conflict with the Roman Academy of St Luke in the 1630s. The group lived on friendly and hostile terms with their French and German fellow-artists. As well as confrontation, there was also assimilation, expressed among other things in collaboration with Italian artists and with a permanent establishment in Rome. . . . The 'Schildersbent' (painters' clique) as the group was also known, had no characteristic artistic style of its own. Every current style and subject in paintings was represented in the work of the member artists. . . . The Bentvueghels group had at least 480 members spanning the best part of a century. The numbers reflected a pattern of growth, flourishing, and decline during the time the group was in existence: the number of members in the first quarter of the 17th century doubled in the second quarter, quadrupled in the third quarter, dropped in the fourth quarter to slightly more than the original numbers, and finally, in the first quarter of the 18th century, continued to dwindle until the last Bentvueghel disappeared."
– Judith Verberne, from the catalogue of a 2001 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, published in English as Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch artists in Italy, translated by Lynne Richards
Below, a cross-section of Italianate images by both well-remembered and by near-forgotten Bentvueghels –
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| Bartholomeus Breenbergh Piazza del Popolo, Rome (showing a fragment of the old city walls, shortly to be demolished) before 1657 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| attributed to Bartholomeus Breenbergh Bridge in an Italian town before 1657 drawing British Museum |
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| Bartholomeus Breenbergh S. Pietro in Vincola, Rome before 1657 drawing British Museum |
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| Pieter Moninckx Pyramid of Cestius and the Porta San Paolo, Rome before 1686 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pieter Moninckx View of Civitavecchia with harbor wall ca. 1660 drawing Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Bartholomeus Appelman Hilly landscape with a chapel by a bridge ca. 1650-86 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Herman Breckerveld Landscape with rider before 1673 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Lapp Italian travellers halting at a watering-place on a rocky path ca. 1625 drawing British Museum |
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| Paul Bril Landscape with travellers at sunset, near Rome 1606 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Jan Both Herdsmen with cows on a lakeshore, with ruins in background before 1652 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Jan Asselijn Mountainous Italianate landscape with rustic bridge and travellers ca. 1635-50 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Jan Asselijn View of the Arch of Constantine before full excavation, seen from the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing Harvard Art Museums |
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| Jan Asselijn View from the Capitol, Rome (rear of balustrade with Trophy of Marius, the Dioscuri, statue of Constantine, and St Peter's in the distance) ca. 1635-42 drawing British Museum |