The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 444

VANDEVELDT, WILLIAM, the Elder, marine painter, born at Leyden; painted sea-fights; was patronised by Charles II. and James II.

(1611-1693).

VANDEVELDT, WILLIAM, the Younger, marine painter, son of preceding; patronised likewise by Charles II. (1633-1707).

VANDYCK, SIR ANTHONY, great portrait-painter, born in Antwerp; studied under Rubens, whose favourite pupil he was; visited Italy, and devoted himself to the study of the great masters; on his return to Antwerp painted "Christ Crucified between Two Thieves"; came to England in 1632, and was patronised by Charles I.; was knighted, and made court painter; painted the royal family, the king, queen, and their two children, and during the next eight years executed portraits of all the court people; his portraits are very numerous, and the most celebrated are in England; died at Blackfriars, and was buried in St. Paul's (1599-1641).

VANE, SIR HENRY, a notability of the Civil War period in England; was a Puritan of the republican type, born in Kent; studied at Oxford; emigrated for a time to New England, but returned, entered Parliament, took an active part against the Royalists, withstood Cromwell, and was openly rebuked by him; his opposition to the Protectorate led to his imprisonment for a time; at the Restoration he was arrested and beheaded on Tower Hill (1612-1662).

VAR (288), a department in the SE. of France; is in part mountainous, with fertile valleys; yields wine, tobacco, and various fruits.

VARENNES, a small town near Verdun, in France, where in 1791 Louis XVI. was intercepted in his attempt to escape from France.

VARNA (25), a port of Bulgaria, on a bay in the Black Sea; a place of considerable trade, specially in exporting corn; here the French and English allied forces encamped for four months in 1854 prior to their invasion of the Crimea.

VARNHAGEN, VON ENSE, German memoir writer, and excellent in that department; a man of many vicissitudes; memorable chiefly as the editor of his wife's letters. See RAHEL.

VARRO, MARCUS TERENTIUS, "the most learned of the Romans," wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which only fragments remain, but enough to prove the greatness of the loss; was the friend of Pompey, then Caesar, then Cicero, but survived the strife of the time and spent his leisure afterwards in literary labours (116-27 B.C.).

VARUNA, in the Hindu mythology the G.o.d of the luminous heavens, viewed as embracing all things and as the primary source of all life and every blessing. "In connection with no other G.o.d," says M. Barth, "is the sense of the divine majesty and of the absolute dependence of the creature expressed with the same force. We must go to the Psalms to find similar accents of adoration and supplication." He was the prototype of the Greek Ura.n.u.s, the primeval father of G.o.ds and men.

VARUS, PUBLIUS QUINTILIUS, Roman consul, appointed by Augustus governor of Germany; being attacked by Arminius and overpowered with loss of three Roman legions under his command, he committed suicide; when the news of the disaster reached Rome Augustus was overwhelmed with grief, and in a paroxysm of despair called upon the dead man to restore him his legions.

VASARI, GIORGIO, Italian painter and architect, born in Arezzo; was the author of biographies of Italian artists, and it is on these, with the criticism they contain, that his t.i.tle to fame rests (1511-1574).

Va.s.sAR COLLEGE, a college 2 m. E. of Poughkeepsie, New York, founded by Matthew Va.s.sar, a wealthy brewer, in 1861 for the higher education of women.

VATHEC, an Oriental potentate and libertine, guilty of all sorts of crimes, and hero of a novel of the name by WILLIAM BECKFORD (q. v.).

VATICAN, THE, the palace of the Pope in Rome and one of the largest in the world; contains a valuable collection of works of art, and is one of the chief attractions in the city; it is a storehouse of literary treasures as well and doc.u.ments of interest bearing on the history of the Middle Ages.

VATICAN COUNCIL, a Church council attended by 764 ecclesiastics under the auspices of Pius IX., which a.s.sembled on December 8, 1869, and by a majority of nearly 481 decreed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.

VAUBAN, SEBASTIEN LE PRESTRE DE, marshal of France in the reign of Louis XIV.; military engineering was his great forte, and as such he "conducted 53 sieges, was present at 104 battles, erected 33 fortresses, and restored the works of 300 old ones"; he was originally in the service of Spain, and was enlisted in the French service by Cardinal Mazarin; he was a political economist as well as engineer, but his animadversions only procured for him the royal disfavour (1633-1707).

VAUCLUSE (valley shut in) (235), department in the SE. of France; chief industries agriculture, silk-weaving, pottery, &c., and with a village of the name, 19 m. E. of Avignon, famous for its fountain and as the retreat of Petrarch for 16 years.

VAUD (247), a canton in the W. of Switzerland, between Jura and the Bernese Alps; is well cultivated, yields wines, and its inhabitants Protestants; the capital is Lausanne.

VAUDEVILLE, a light, lively song with topical allusions; also a dramatic poem interspersed with comic songs of the kind and dances.

VAUDOIS, the name given to Waldenses who, driven forth from France or Vaud, found refuge and settled down in the mountain fastnesses of Piedmont.

VAUGHAN, CHARLES JOHN, English clergyman, born at Leicester; was a pupil of Dr. Arnold's at Rugby; for many years famous as Master of the Temple, a post he resigned in 1894; held in high esteem as a preacher and for his fine spirit (1816-1897).

VAUGHAN, HENRY, English poet, self-styled the "Silurist" from the seat of his family in South Wales; studied at Oxford, was a partisan of the royal cause; wrote four volumes of poems in the vein of George Herbert, but was much more mystical and had deeper thoughts, could he have expressed them; of his poems the first place has been a.s.signed to "Silex Scintillans," the theme the flinty heart when smelted giving out sparks. "At times," adds Prof. Saintsbury, "there is in him genuine blood and fire; but it is not always, or even often, that the flint is kindled and melted to achieved expression" (1622-1695).

VAUGHAN, HERBERT, CARDINAL, archbishop of Westminster, born at Gloucester, son of Lieut.-Colonel Vaughan; educated at Stonyhurst and abroad; succeeded Cardinal Manning as archbishop in 1872, having previously been bishop of Salford; _b_. 1832.

VAUVENARGUES, MARQUIS DE, celebrated French essayist, born at Aix, Provence, poor, but of an old and honourable family; entered the army at 18, served in the Austrian Succession War, resigned his commission in 1744, settled in Paris and took to literature; his princ.i.p.al work was "Introduction a la Connaissance de l'Esprit Humain," followed by reflections and maxims on points of ethics and criticism; he suffered from bad health, and his life was a short one (1715-1747).

VEDANGA, one of the six commentaries on the Vedas.

VEDaNTA, a system of Hindu speculation in interpretation of the Vedas, founded on the pre-supposition of the ident.i.ty of the spiritual working at the heart of things and the spiritual working in the heart of man.

VEDAS, the sacred books of the Hindus, of sacerdotal origin and ancient date, of which there are four collections, severally denominated the Rig-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, to each of which are attached Brahmanas in elucidation.

VEDDAS, the aborigines of Ceylon, of whom some 2000, still in a wild state, are extant between Kandy and the E. coast.

VEGA, LOPEZ DE LA, known as Lope, Spanish dramatist, born in Madrid; began life as a soldier; served in the Armada; was secretary to the Duke of Alva; took orders, and became an officer of the Inquisition; wrote a heroic pastoral ent.i.tled "Arcadia" at the instance of the duke, and the "Dragonica" over the death of Drake as the destroyer of the supremacy of Spain on the sea; was a man of fertile inventiveness, and is said to have written 2000 plays, besides no end of verses, and was called by Cervantes a "Prodigy of Nature" (1562-1635).

VEHMGERICHTE or FEHMGERICHT, a tribunal in Germany during the Middle Ages, of which there were several, all powerful, in connection with a secret organisation under sanction of the emperor for the enforcement of justice and punishment of crime at a period when the States severally were too weak to uphold it. These courts were held in secret places at night, and inspired great terror in the 13th and 14th centuries.

VEII, an ancient city of Etruria, and in early times a formidable rival of Rome, from which it was only 12 m. distant. The Romans under Camillus laid siege to it, and it baffled them for 10 years.

VEIT, PHILIPP, painter of the Romanticist school, born at Berlin; his best-known work is a fresco, "Christianity bringing the Fine Arts to Germany."