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 VANNI

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VANNI

Charles of Blois was killed, put an end to the struggle between the two families of Blois and of Montfort. An army of emigres, commanded by Puisaye, Sombreuil, and d'Hervilly, landed, June, 1795, on the Peninsula of Quiberon, was there joined by 10,000 Chouans, and was attacked by Hoche, who completely annihilated it, 16 July, 1795. Herc(?, Bishop of Dol, was shot at Vannes by the Repubhcan troops, on 3 July, 1795; ^QO emigres, who had landed at Quiberon, were shot at Blech, near Auray; their bones are kept at the Carthusian monastery of Auray, the ancient collegiate church founded in the fourteenth century by Jean de Montfort.

Councils were held at Vannes in 461 or 465, 818, 846. The Viscountship of Rohan, in the diocese, was erected in 1603, by Henri IV, into a duchy-peerage for Henri de Rohan (1574- 163S), who became one of the leaders of the Protestant party under Louis XIII. A certain number of saints are connected with the his- tory of the diocese: St. Eguiner or Guyomard (Guig- nerus), martyr at Ploudery in 499; St. Albinus (Aubin), Bishop of Angers from 529 to 549, native of the Diocese of Vannes; St. Salomon, Duke or King of the Bretons, martyr (ninth century); St. Goustan (Gulstanus), lav brother of the monastery of St. Gildas, d. about 1009; St. Vincent Ferrer (1357- 1419), who died at Vannes, where he is buried, is patron of the episcopal city; Blessed Frangoise d'Amboise, Duchess of Brittany, who, having become a widow, refused the brilliant marriages which Louis XI suggested to her, founded the Carmelites of Vannes, and died in 1485. The chief pilgrimages of the dio- cese are: Notre-Dame de Larmor; Notre-Dame de Quelven, at Guern; Notre-Dame du Roncier, at Jossehn; Notre-Dame du Vceu, at Hennebont; and above all the pilgrimage of Saint Anne d' Auray. From the earliest centuries, Brittany had erected a chapel to Saint Anne; it was destroyed at the close of the eighth century, but popular tradition forbade the sowing of the field of Bocenno, where the chapel had been erected. In 1623 and 1624, after visions, the farmer Yves Nicolazic obtained from the bishop per- mission for a new chapel. The image of St. Anne, which was venerated there, was burned in 1793; but a new statue of Saint Anne was solemnly consecrated by order of Pius IX, 30 September, 1868.

Before the appUcation of the Law of 1901 to the congregations, there were in the Diocese of Vannes, Capuchins, Jesuits, missionary priests of the Society of Mary, Eudists, Picpusiens, Fathers of the Holy Spirit and of the Sacred Heart of Mary, and lay Brothers of St. Francis Regis. The powerful so- ciety of the Brothers of Christian Instruction had its mother-house at Ploermel, in the diocese (see Christian Instruction, Brothers of the). Many communities of women were originally of the diocese: the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis, hospitallers and teachers, founded in 1803 by Mme de Malesherbes, widow of the defender of Louis XVI, and her daugh- ter, Mme iVIole, with the mother-house at Vannes; the Daughters of Jesus, with the mother-house at Kermaria. At the end of the nineteenth century, the religious congregations conducted in the Diocese of Vannes: 2 infant asylums; 44 day nurseries; 1 school for deaf mutes; 3 orphan asylums for boys; 8 orphan asylums for girls; 4 industrial rooms; 1 home for unprotected young girls; 18 hospitals or refuges; more than 150 houses of religious for the care of the sick at their homos; 1 insane asylum. The Diocese of Vannes had in 1905 (at the end of the administra- tion of the Concordat) : 563,468 inhabitants; 38 hvings; 238 parochial chapels; 279 vicariates, recompensed by the State.

Callia chrisliana, XIV nom, (1856), 915-40, inslr. 209-224; Ddchesne, Fastes ipiscopa-ax, II (Paris, IS94-«); Tresvadx. L'Eglise de Brr.tagnc (Paris, 1839); Lallemand, Les origines hia- tvriqurn de Vannes (Vannes. 19u4); Le Men^. Hist, archiologique, Jiodale et rdigieuse dea provincea du diociae de Yannea (2 vols.,

Vannes, 1894) ; Luco, FouiUe historique de Vancien diocese de Vannes (2nd ed., Vannes. 1908) ; Rosenzweig, La Chartreuse d' Auray (Vannes, 1863) ; NicOL, Sainte Anne d' Auray, hist, du pdirinage (Paris, 1878).

Georges Goyad.

Vanni, A^fDRBA, painter and statesman, b. at Siena, 1320; d. 1414. He entered pohtics after the democratic overthrow of the government of the city. A letter written to him by St. Catherine, his country- woman and friend, concerning the administration of the country, is still preserved. He was elected to the Grand Council and sent as Sienese ambassador to the pope at Avignon and Naples. As an artist he was a weak imitator of Simone Martini and of Lorenzetti. With his brother Lippo Vanni, Bartolo di Fredi, and Taddeo di Bartolo, he. introduced early Sienese art into the fifteenth century. His chief authenticated work is a large polyptych in the Church of Santo Stefano at Siena. This painting depicts the Virgin enthroned between Sts. Stephen, James the Less, John the Baptist, and Bartholomew; in the niches above are the figures of the Evangelists, while several saints and an Annunciation are painted in five higher projecting compartments. The small heads and the gestures betray a certain stiffness. A very agreeable and carefullv painted picture is a "Madonna and Child" in tlic Church of San Michele. A "Birth of the Virgin", representing James, Catherine, Bartho- lomew, and Elizabeth, in the gallery at Siena, is the joint work of Vanni and Bartolo di Fredi, who often worked together both in art and pohtics. A "Cruci- fixion" with two saints by Vanni is in the Academy at Siena, an "Aimunciation" in two panels in the Palazzo Saraceni, and a "St. Sebastian" at the museum. Vanni celebrated St. Catherine in the frescoes of San Domenico at Siena. He also painted at Naples.

Perkins in the Burlington Magazine, VI (1908), no. 2; Milan- ese, Documenti per la storia delVarte senese (Siena, 1854-56) ; DELLA Valle, Lettere Senesi, I (Siena, 1782) ; Crowe and C.vvaI/-

CASELLE, New History of Painting in Italy, II CLondon, 1S64 ) ;

RicHTER, Siena (Leipzig, 1901).

G. GlETMANN.

Vanni, Francesco, painter, b. at Siena, 1565; d. there, 1609. Vanni was one of the better class of artists of the Eclectic School of painting of his era. He shared, indeed, in the weaknesses of this school, yet many regard him as the restorer of Italian painting in the sixteenth century. The artistic value of his work does not always equal his fertility in production. How- ever, by teaching and example he exerted a lasting influence, and trained capable pupils, among whom were his sons Michelangelo and Raffaello Vanni. His first teachers were Sa- limbene and Pas- sarotti, and at an early age he studied the works of Raphael at Rome under the direction of do' Vecchi. But at Siena the style thus created did not prove popu- lar. He then went to Parma and Bologna and adopted the style of Baroccio, the Umbrian leader in the Ba- roque style of painting. After this, on the recom- mendation of Baronius, he was called to Rome by Pope