This picture, painted by Dutch artist Carl (Karel) Max Gerlach Antoon Quaedvlieg in conjunction with British painter Robert Alexander Hillingford – who is presumably responsible for the figures – depicts a moment in the so-called "German artists' feast" of 1856, the year in which the venue chosen for the festive gathering was the Torre Salaria on the banks of the Aniene, which we can just make out on the right on the painting.

The tradition was begun by the self-styled "Società di Ponte Molle", an association of German artists resident in Rome, who adopted the custom in the early 19^th century of travelling out to the Milvian Bridge to greet their compatriots entering the Eternal City and to escort them with much revelry to the inns in the German neighbourhood of Piazza di Spagna.

This society's feasts soon acquired a certain renown and many artists of other nationalities, famous figures and sometimes even the Romans themselves began to take part. One such was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's son August, who attended the feast held on 25 October 1830.

The society changed its name to Deutscher Künstler-Verein, the "Association of German Artists", in 1845. In 1856, which is the date of our painting, the Society was presided over by the painter Carl Haag.

The most picturesque venue chosen by the artists to celebrate their carnival was the "grotte di Cervara", a series of vast tufa quarries running along the banks of the Aniene about a kilometre upstream of the Ponte Mammolo.

The feasts were suspended during the troubles of 1848-9 but were resumed in 1850, although no longer in the grotte di Cervara. The Chapter of Santa Maria Maggiore, which owned the land, had banned the artists from entering the quarries, so they decided to gather first in Castelfusano and subsequently, for several years, in the Castel Giubileo area close to the Via Salaria, where Ludwig I of Bavaria was one of the merrymakers at the feast held in 1855.

The political situation prompted the artists to suspend their feasts again in the late 1850s, though this was followed by a short-lived revival in the grotte di Cervara in 1869. The old quarries were used for the festivities one last time in 1890, after which the tradition was abandoned for good.

It fell to the chairman of the society to organise the feast, which consisted in lavish banqueting with copious amounts of wine being drunk, fancy dress being worn and the artists competing with one another, in an event which combined elements of the Roman carnival with German tradition. In fact the Romans ultimately christened it the "Germans' carnival".

The organisation of the feast demanded not only money but also lengthy preparation. Horses and asses had to be made ready for the journey, the artistic decor had to be prepared, and costumes, flags, banners and carts had to be found. The German artists, frequently joined by artists of other nationalities, started meeting at the Caffè Greco weeks beforehand to get everything organised, and in their studios they would paint, sew their constumes and devise poetic verses for the speeches and the traditional inscription on one of the quarry walls that was part and parcel of every feast at Cervara. Finally, the group split up into cohorts led by centurions: there was the cavalry with asses and horses, the artillery, the infantry and even a private police force charged with keeping order at the feast.

When the great day came, the participants met by the city's Porta Maggiore gate to don their masks and their fancy dress (there was a ban on wearing costumes inside the city at that time of the year). Banners waved, trumpets sounded, drums rolled and asses brayed. As soon as the great triumphal cart arrived bearing the society's president, everyone marched off for the grotte di Cervara to the accompaniment of much music and song.

Their first stop was at the Villa dei Giordani at Tor de' Schiavi, where they broke their fast – a painting by Carl Werner formerly owned by the Galleria Paolo Antonacci depicts the gathering at the Villa dei Gordiani in 1846, the year in which Werner himself was the president of the "Società di Ponte Molle" – before pursuing their journey to the grotte di Cervara, where those in charge of the catering prepared a lavish banquet.

Throughout the course of the day the artists entered the various competitions that had been planned, for all of which there were highly imaginative prizes, and the climax of the feast was reached when lances were hurled at the archfoe of all artists, the art critic, depicted with a pen and glasses in a stylised portrait on a cardboard disc. Then at dusk, when the celebrations came to an end, the participants made their way back to Rome.

The episode depicted here shows the group arriving at the Torre Salaria. A few figures on the right prepare to broach flasks of wine while others, some of them in particularly outlandish costumes, brandish flags and banners. The elegant figure on his black horse must be Prince Albrecht of Prussia with his retinue. He is the younger brother of the Prussian Kings Frederic William IV and his successor William I., the later German Emperor. Following Noack’s timetable, he arrived at Rome on march 14th 1856. 

In the middle of the composition we see the president of the society, Carl Haag, duly equipped with sceptre and appropriate costume on a festive cart drawn by a pair of oxen, the visual axis formed by the two diagonal lines starting at the far ends of the picture converging on him.