Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/500

VEL of England, then prince of Wales, visited Madrid in 1623, he sat to Velazquez. In 1629 Velazquez visited Italy, but returned to Madrid in 1631. At Naples he contracted a friendship with his countryman, Spagnoletto. The forcible manner of this painter had fascinated Velazquez, who was a decided imitator of his style, and had added another great name to the school of the Tenebrosi. The "Aguador," or water-carrier of Seville, at Apsley house, is a notable early example of his naturalist taste; and the picture of the "Nativity," in the National gallery, is a striking illustration of his early imitation of Spagnoletto, whose works he must have become acquainted with at Seville. he was not naturally a portrait-painter, but he was probably led into this branch of the art by his position at the Spanish court. Though the great majority of his pictures are portraits, or analogous in character, there are a considerable number of religious and other pictures by Velazquez; and among the most remarkable is "Las Hilanderas, or the Spinsters," in the Real Museo at Madrid, painted with such freedom that Mengs said it appeared to have been created by the will, without the aid of hands. Velazquez visited Italy a second time in 1648, to make some art purchases for Philip IV.; and at Rome he painted the magnificent portrait of Pope Innocent X., now in the Doria palace there. After his return to Spain, Philip decorated him with the order of St. Jago, and created him his aposentador mayor, or quartermaster, a post which involved the painter's constant attendance upon the king when journeying, as it was the business of the aposentador to provide the king's lodgings. The exertions of Velazquez to lodge the king suitably on the occasion of the conference at Irun in June, 1660, with reference to the marriage of the Infanta Maria Teresa with Louis XIV. of France, are supposed to have been the cause of his death. He returned to Madrid on the 31st July, and was seized with illness which ended fatally on the 7th of August. He died in the sixty-second year of his age, and his sudden death seems to have caused such a shock to his wife, that she followed him to the grave seven days afterwards. The picture of "Philip IV. hunting the Wild Boar," now in the National gallery, is an admirable illustration, especially in the cluster of figures to the left, of the thorough mastery of his execution in his later works, which never lost the forcible light and shade of his earlier style.—R. N. W.  VELLEJUS,, historian and divine, was born at the town of Vedele in Jutland. He was court preacher in the reign of Frederick II., an office which the king permitted him to resign in order that he might devote himself entirely to the study of history, his favourite pursuit. He was made a canon of Ripen, and he held also some other ecclesiastical sinecures. He died at an advanced age in 1616. Vellejus was a very learned man. He wrote Latin with great purity, and was besides the greatest master of his native tongue among his contemporaries. He edited from the MS. the Adami Bremensis Historia Ecclesiastica, Copenhagen, 1579; and was author of the following works—"Oratio de Origine Appellationis Regni Daniæ;" "De vita et morte Johannis-Petri Grundlith;" "Oratio panegyrica ad Fredericum II. regem," &c.; "Descriptio Islandiæ, per Guldbrandum episcopum Islandiæ communicata, æri insculpta per Ortelium;" "Oratio funebris in obitum Frederici Secundi," 1588; "Vita Suonis Tiuffvesbaeg." He was author of a Danish translation of the history of Denmark and the other northern nations by Saxo Grammaticus; and the following works are also in the vernacular, though they have Latin titles—"Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum Emendatæ," in verse, 1571; "Centuria Cantilenarum Danicarum de priscis Danorum regibus et rebus gestis," 1543; "Septem Sapientium Græciæ Aphorismi," 1572 and 1590. Vellegris published also a series of "Sermons on the Ninetieth Psalm," 1593.—R. M., A.  VELLY,, Abbé de, a French historian, born at Crugny, near Rheims, on the 9th of April, 1709. After studying at the Jesuits' college at Rheims, Velly entered into their society in 1726; but he quitted it in 1740, remaining, however, in friendly relation with many of the body. Arriving at Paris in the following year, he was appointed preceptor in the college of Louis-le-Grand, and began to devote himself to literary pursuits. His first work, published in 1753, was a translation of Swift's History of John Bull, and two years afterwards he published the first two volumes of a "History of France," bringing the narrative down to the death of Philippe I. He had nearly completed the eight volume, when he died by the bursting of a blood-vessel on the 4th of September, 1759. Velly's monotonous narrative betrays a meagre acquaintance with the sources of ancient French history.—W. J. P.  VELMATIO,, a Latin poet of the sixteenth century. He was born at Bagnacavallo in Italy, and belonged to the order of the Fratres Minores or Minorites. He occupied for some time a chair of theology. Velmatio was author of two Latin poems, "Christeidos, seu, Veteris et Novi Testamenti opus singulare ac plane Divinum," and "Actus Apostolorum versibus Expressi." They were published at Venice in 1538. The first of these two poems is a very singular performance indeed. It contains throughout a vast number of the oddest and most ridiculous fancies, and the eleventh book exemplifies in perfection the preposterous jumble of matters, sacred and profane, which we often find in monkish writers.—R. M., A.  VENANTIUS, , author, and bishop of Poictiers, born near Trivigi (Tarvigium) in Italy, 530; died about 609: December 14th was held as a feast in his memory at Poictiers. The friend of Gregory, bishop of Tours; the counsellor of Sigebert, king of Austrasia; and the secretary and poetical admirer of royal S. Radegund—Venantius' own claim to saintship has been disputed. He has left a poetical "Life of S. Martin," in four books, besides other verses which recall his pleasant intercourse with Radegund. Of theological works there remain, from his pen, homilies and expositions of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed.—C. G. R.  VENDOME, Dukes of. The first who bore this celebrated dignity was Charles de Bourbon, on whom it was conferred by Francis I. On the accession of his grandson, Henry IV., to the throne of France this dukedom, along with the other titles of this branch of the Bourbon family, was united to the crown. It was conferred by Henry on, the eldest of his illegitimate sons by Gabrielle d'Estrées, who was born in 1594, legitimated in the following year, and created Duke of Vendôme in 1598. In that year also he married the only daughter of the duke de Mercœur, with whom he received the government of Brittany. In 1610 his father gave the duke precedence over all the peers of the kingdom, except the princes of the blood. He opposed the marriage of Louis XIII. with a Spanish infanta as inconsistent with the welfare of the state, and took up arms against the government. But his retainers deserted him on the approach of the royal army, and he was obliged to submit. He served against the Huguenots in 1622; but having taken part in the conspiracy of Chalais against Richelieu in 1626, he suffered imprisonment for four years, and recovered his liberty only on giving up his government of Brittany. In 1631 he commanded the volunteers who fought on the side of the Dutch at the siege of Lillo. In 1641 he was falsely accused of having entered into a plot against the life of Richelieu, and took refuge in England, where he remained until the death of the cardinal. In 1650 he was appointed governor of Burgundy, and rendered various important services to the state, particularly in dispersing and putting to flight the Spanish fleet before Barcelona in 1655. The duke died in 1665, in his seventy-first year.—His brother, , born in 1598, was grandprior of the order of the knights of Malta, and took a prominent part in political affairs during the reign of Louis XIII. He was imprisoned along with his brother for conspiracy against Richelieu in 1626, and died in prison in 1629, as it was alleged, of poison.

, second duke of Vendôme, son of Cæsar, was born in 1612, and bore the title of duke of Mercœur during his father's lifetime. His first service in the field was under Louis XIII. in the campaign in Picardy. He served under his father at the siege of Lillo, and afterwards distinguished himself at the sieges of Hesdin and Arras. In 1649 he raised a cavalry regiment, to which he gave the name of Mercœur, and was appointed viceroy and commander-in-chief of the French army in Catalonia, but he resigned in disgust because the minister did not send him the reinforcements which he required. In 1651 he married Laura Mancini, the elder of Mazarin's nieces, was received into favour at court, and was appointed governor of Provence. In 1656 Louis XIV. appointed him, in conjunction with the duke of Modena, to command the army of Lombardy; but having lost his wife in the course of that year, he took holy orders, and in 1667 was created a cardinal. He was nominated by Clement I. legate a latere in France. He died in 1669.

, third duke of Vendôme, elder son of the preceding, was born in 1654. In 1672, at the age of eighteen, he served in Holland in the last campaigns of Turenne, was created 