Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/379

 VELDEKE

327

VENEZUELA

painter, but we must discern in him one of the finest minds and serenest souls that has ever been on earth, a glance capable of embracing and understanding nature, the whole of life without omission or scorn, passion or hatred, and of reproducing it in its true aspect as it appeared in the mirror of his thought. Alone of all the Spanish painters, although the most local of all, he is universal. But no more than any other master of his class did he form pupils worthy of him. No school emerged from "The Spinners" and "The Weavers". Rare pictures were connected with them, such as the family picture of J. B. del Mazo, mentioned above, and the "Santa Forma" of Coello in the Escurial, after which we find no com- panion to "The Maids of Honour" until Goya's "Family of Charles IV". But modern art is chiefly connected with Velazquez; the work of Whistler, for example, or of Lucien Simon, to mention only these two, are attempts to utilize the lesson of the last works of Velazquez. It was more than two centuries before European painting reached the point to which extra- ordinary genius had brought this Catholic Spaniard of the time of Philip IV.

Pacheco. Arte rie lit pinlura (Seville. 1649; new ed. by Crpzada ViLLAAMiL, 2 vols., Madrid. 1S66): Bermcdez in Dice. hisl. dr los mds ilustres profcsores de las Bellas Aries (Madrid, ISOO^: Gautier, Diego Velazquez de Silva in U Artiste, 38th year, I, 3.'>1 aqq.; Stirling - Maxwell, Velazquez (London, IS.'JS): Idem. Annals of the Artists of Spain (2nd ed., 4 vols.. London, 18901; ZARro DEL Valle, Documentos ineditos para la historia de Ins Bellas AHes (Madrid. 1870). 398-432; Lefort. Velazquez in GazrUe des Beaui Arts (1879, 1884): JrsTi, Diego Velazquez (Bonn, 1.S89), tr. Keane (London, 1890); KNACKFrss. Velazquez (Bielefeld, 1896); Bonnat, Velazquez in C'lu-. drs Beaux Arts (1898), I, 177; Beruete, Velazquez (Tin 1^''^ . rr. London, 1906>; Deviluer, il/emoirf rfe tV^ar'/i/' .jenroyfsA

CEscurioi (Paris. 1874); Armstrong, 1 i iilon, 1897) ;

Stevenson, Velazquez (London, 2n(l 'H. 1^ I'.iikal, Velaz- quez (London, 1904); Gensel, Velazquez in Meislers GenUtlde in lie AbbiUungen, Klassiker der Kunst, VI (Stuttgart, 1905).

LO0IS GiLLET.

Veldeke, Heinrich von. See Heinrich von Veldekb.

Velletri. See Ostia and Velletri, Diocese of.

Venafro. See Isernia and Venafro, Diocese of.

Venantius Fortunatus. Sec Fortunatus, Vb- nantius Honorius Clementianus.

Venerable. Sec Beatification and Canoniza- tion.

Venezuela, a republic formed out of the provinces which, under Spanish rule, constituted the cap- taincy general of the same name. This republic has an area of '2S0,01S square miles, lying between the meridians of 62° and 7.3° W. longitude, and between 1° 8' and 12° 16' N. latitude. Its surface is di.strih- uted as follows: mountain ranges, 92,913 square miles; table lands, 1.501 square miles; plains, 228,993 square miles; lakes, 7,509 square miles; lands liable to inundation, 24, ,544 square miles; the remainder being swamps, uninhabitable paramos, and small islands. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, where it has a coastline of 898 miles; south, by the Republic of Brazil, from which it is separated by the great Parima range; east, by the Atlantic Ocean and British Guiana; west, by the Republic of Colombia. Without including the rivers that rise in Colombia, there are 1047 rivers in Vene- zuela, the principal being the Orinoco, which rises in the forest regions and by means of the Ca-siquiare branch unites with the Rio Xegro, which, again, flows into the .\mazon; it then flows north and after- wards east, and discharges by means of eighty mouths into the Atlantic ocean, after a course of 1.323 miles. The other rivers are the Apure, Meta, ('uyuni, Qua- riare, Arauca, Quarico, Cuara, Puruni. There are also two lakes, the Maracaibo and the Valencia; 204 lagoons, among which are the Tjicarigua, the Sina- maica and the Guasaconica; three principal gulfs, the

Maracaibo, the Triste, and the Paria. The highest mountain peaks are the Sierra Nevada, 16,437 ft.; Naiguata, 10,.500 ft.; Maraguata, 9000 ft. There are no volcanoes, but some thermal springs, the most famous being those of Trinchsras in Carabobo, Cuiva in Coro, and Guarume in the Guarico.

Climate and Natural Resources. — Venezuela is divided into three well-defined zones: first, the mountainous, formed by a direct arm of the Andes penetrating through Tachira and Trujillo, and running along the sea co;ist to the peninsula of Paria; secondly, the zone of the plains which ex- tend to the banks of the Orinoco; thirdly, the forest region, which ex- tends from the right bank of ilic Orinoco to ilir Brazihan boun- dary line. In the first of these zones all varieties of climate are to be found, from the cold of the Sierra Nevada of Me- rida, to the genial warmth of the foot-hills; and, excepting the coast, which is warm and unhealthy, the remainder, which forms a great, agricul- tural belt, is both salubrious and fertile. In the plains, where the climate is warm, pastures abound, and aU kinds of live stock are raised, cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, asses. In this zone may also be seen large stretches of plain covered with a luxuriant growth of wild flowers, and aUve with flocks of numberless birds of the most marvellously varie- gated pluinagc. In the forest zones all kinds of timber and dye woods, medicinal plants, etc. are to be found, and also enormous birds, crocodiles, and boas. The climate here is, for the most part, warm and unhealthy. Mammals abound, chiefly monkeys, bears, jaguars, panthers, ocelots, pumas, water dogs, and manatees.

The annual mean temperature of some of the principal cities is: Caracas, 66° 43'; Valencia, 80°; Maracaibo, 86° 20'; Barquisemeto, 77° 54'; Ciudad Bolivar, 86° 40'; Merida, 64° 36' Fahrenheit. The country has extensive mineral products, copper in Aroa, gold in Guiana, hard coal in Coro, Barcelona, and Maracaibo, mene in Cumami, saline deposits along the coast of Barcelona, Carabobo, Mayarita, and Maracaibo, and large quantities of a-sphalt in Barcelona and Maracaibo. The principal agricultural products are coffee, cocoa, and sugar-cane, besides a gi'eat abundance and variety of fruits. Cat I le-raising is extensively carried on in the plains. The popula- tion, at the census of 1911, was 2,713,703; that of the capital, ('aracas, 72,429.

Commerce and Industries. — As the most impor- tant product of exportation has always been coffee, and the market price of this has been so low during recent years, the economic situation of the country has suffered. To this other causes, especially politi- cal, have also contributed. The official computation for the vear 1910 gave the amount of exports as 64,184,206.63 bolivars ($12,3S7,.5.52 or £2,477,510). Among the exports of Venezuela are: cotton, starch, hemp .sandals, asphalt, cocoa, coffee, rubber, copper, coco-nut, co[)aiba, cinchona, horn, hides, divi-divi, fresh fruits, cabinet woods, gold, feathers, sarsapa- rilla, tobacco in leaf. In manufactures Venezuela is