Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/75

Rh V A N V A N On the death of Huneric (484) he was succeeded by his cousin Gunthamund, Genseric having established seniority among his own descendants as the law of succession to his throne. Gunthamund (484-496) and his brother Thrasa- mund (496-523), though Arians, abated some of the rigour of the persecution, and maintained the external credit of the monarchy. Internally, however, it was rapidly declining, the once chaste and hardy Vandals being demoralized by the fervid climate of Africa and the sinful delights of their new capital, and falling ever lower into sloth, effeminacy, and vice. On the death of Thrasamund, Hilderic (523- 531), the son of Huneric and Eudocia, at length succeeded to the throne. He adhered to the creed of his mother rather than to that of his father; and, in spite of a solemn oath sworn to his predecessor that he would not restore the Catholic churches to their owners, he at once pro ceeded to do so and to recall the bishops. Hilderic, elderly, Catholic, and timid, was very unpopular with his subjects, and after a reign of eight years he was thrust into prison by his warlike cousin Gelimer (531-534). The wrongs of Hilderic, a Catholic, and with the blood of Theodosius in his veins, afforded to Justinian a long- coveted pretext for overthrowing the Vandal dominion, the latent weakness of which was probably known to the statesmen of Constantinople. A great expedition under the command of Belisarius (in whose train was the his torian Procopius) sailed from the Bosphorus in June 533, and after touching at Catana in Sicily finally reached Africa in the beginning of September. Gelimer, who was strangely ignorant of the plans of Justinian, had sent his brother Tzazo with some of his best troops to quell a re bellion in Sardinia (that island as well as the Balearic Isles forming part of the Vandal dominions), and the land ing of Belisarius was entirely unopposed. He marched rapidly towards Carthage and on the 13th of September was confronted by Gelimer at Ad Decimum, 10 miles from Carthage. The battle did not reflect any great credit either on Byzantine or Vandal generalship. It was in fact a series of blunders on both sides, but Belisarius made the fewest and victory remained with him. On the 14th of September 533 the imperial general entered Carthage and ate the feast prepared in Gelimer s palace for its lord. Belisarius, however, was too late to save the life of Hilderic, who had been slain by his rival s orders as soon as the news came of the landing of the imperial army. Still Gelimer with many of the Vandal warriors was at liberty. On the return of Tzazo from Sardinia a force was collected considerably larger than the imperial army, and Gelimer met Belisarius in battle at a place about twenty miles from Carthage, called Tricamarum (December 533). This battle was far more stubbornly contested than that of Ad Deci mum, but it ended in the utter rout of the Vandals and the flight of Gelimer. He took refuge in a mountain fortress called Pappua on the Numidian frontier, and there, after enduring great hardships in the squalid dwellings of the Moors, surrendered to his pursuers in March 534. The well-known stories of his laughter when he was in troduced to Belisarius, and his chant, &quot; Vanitas vanitatum,&quot; when he walked before the triumphal car of his conqueror through the streets of Constantinople, probably point to an intellect disordered by his reverses and hardships. The A 7 andals who were carried captive to Constantinople were enlisted in five squadrons of cavalry and sent to serve against the Parthians under the title &quot; Justiniani Vandali.&quot; Four hundred escaped to Africa and took part in a mutiny of the imperial troops which was with difficulty quelled by Belisarius (536). After this the Vandals disappear from history. The overthrow of their kingdom undoubtedly rendered easier the spread of Saracen conquest along the northern shore of Africa in the following century. In this as in many other fields Justinian sowed that Mohammed might reap. Authorities. Procopius, De Bcllo Vandalico, a first-rate authority for contemporary events, must be used with caution for those which happened two or three generations before him. Consult especially i. 5 for the land settlement of Genseric, and also Victor Vitensis and Possidius ( Vita A ugustini) for the persecution of the Catholics. The chroniclers Idatius, Prosper, Victor Tunnunensis supply some facts. The Chronicon of Isidore adds little to our knowledge and is absurdly wrong in its chronology. Of modern treatises that of Papencordt (Gesch. d. Vandal. Herrschaft in Afrika] is the most complete. Consult also Dahn (Kbnige der Germanen, part I.), Gibbon (chaps, xxxiii. and xli. ), and Hodgkin (Italy and her In vaders, vols. ii. and iii. ). (T. II.) VAN DER HELST. See HELST. VANDEVELDE, ADRIAN (1639-1672), animal and land scape painter, a brother of William Vandevelde (see below), the marine painter, was born at Amsterdam in 1639. He was trained in the studio of Jan Wynants, the landscape painter, where he made the acquaintance of Philip Wouwer- man, who is believed to have aided him in his studies of animals, and to have exercised a powerful and beneficial influence upon his art. Having made exceptionally rapid progress, he was soon employed by his master to introduce figures into his landscape compositions, and he rendered a similar service to Hobbema, Ruysdael, Verboom, and other contemporary artists. His favourite subjects are scenes of open pasture land, with sheep, cattle, and goats, which he executed with admirable dexterity, with much precision of touch and truth of draughtsmanship, and with clear silvery colouring. He painted a few small but ex cellent winter scenes with skaters, and several religious subjects, such as the Descent from the Cross, for the Iloman Catholic church in Amsterdam. In addition to his paintings, of which nearly two hundred have been cata logued, he executed about twenty etchings, several of which appear from their dates to have been done in his fourteenth year. They are simple but pleasing in tonality, and are distinguished by great directness of method, and by delicacy and certainty of touch. Adrian Vandevelde died at Amsterdam in January 1672. VANDEVELDE, WILLIAM (1633-1707), the younger, marine painter, a son of William Vandevelde, the elder, also a painter of sea-pieces, was born at Amsterdam in 1633. He was instructed by his father, and afterwards by Simon de Vlieger, a marine painter of repute at the time, and had achieved great celebrity by his art before he came to London. In 1674 he was engaged by Charles II., at a salary of 100, to aid his father in &quot;taking and making draughts of sea-fights,&quot; his part of the work being to reproduce in colour the drawings of the elder Vandevelde. He was also patronized by the duke of York and by various members of the nobility. He died in London on 6th April 1707. It seems probable that most of Vandevfilde s finest works were executed before his residence in England, for they represent views off the coast of Holland, .with Dutch shipping. His best produc tions are delicate, spirited, and finished in handling, and correct in the drawing of the vessels and their rigging. The numerous figures are tellingly introduced, and the artist is successful in his renderings of sea, whether in calm or storm. His later productions are less carefully finished, and less pure and transparent in colour. Vandevelde was a most prolific artist : in addition to his paintings, of which Smith catalogues about three hundred and thirty, he executed an immense number of drawings, sketches, and studies, which are prized by collectors. VAN DIEMEN S LAND. See TASMANIA. VAN DYCK, SIR ANTHONY (1599-1641), painter, was born in Antwerp on 22d March 1599. Though the name of Van Dyck is frequently met with in the list of Antwerp painters, Anthony s pedigree cannot be traced beyond his grandparents, who were silk mercers of some standing. He was the seventh of twelve children of Francis Van Dyck, an Antwerp tradesman in good circumstances, and