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 284 VELA at the Sepulchre," "The Parable of the Good Samaritan," and "The Egyptian Darkness," for the king of Prussia. VELA, Vineenzo, an Italian sculptor, horn at Ligurnetto, in the Swiss canton of Ticino, in 1822. He was brought up as a stone cutter, but perfected himself in Milan as a sculptor, and in 1844 won a competitive prize at Venice. After his return from the Italian war against Austria (1848) he refused to join the acade- my of fine arts at Milan, and settled in Turin. His works include statues representing U A Prayer," "Spartacus," "Hope and Resigna- tion," " Music in Tears " (for Donizetti's fune- ral monument at Bergamo), " France and Ita- ly " (a group presented in 1863 by the ladies of Milan to the empress Eng6nie), and "Co- lumbus and America" (a colossal group in plaster). His masterpiece, representing the last days of Napoleon at St. Helena, attracted much attention at the Paris exhibition of 1867, and is now in the metropolitan museum of art, New York. VELASQUEZ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y, a Span- ish painter, born in Seville in June, 1599, died in Madrid, Aug. 7, 1660. He was of Portu- guese origin on the father's side. While a child he studied under the elder Herrera, whose harshness caused him to enter the school of Francisco Pacheco, but with little advantage excepting his marriage with his master's daugh- ter; and he was in reality self-taught. His chief model was a peasant boy, whom he painted in his rags in every variety of expres- sion and attitude ; and he also excelled in painting fruit, fish, and other common objects of still life. His works of this period exhibit great breadth and force, but no attempt at ideal or poetical expression. A well known specimen, " The Water Carrier," is in the col- lection at Apsley house, London. In 1622 ho went to Madrid, and in 1623 was employed to paint the portrait of Olivarez, the minister of Philip IV. The king was his next sitter, and the picture was exhibited on the steps of the church of San Felipe, and greatly admired. Velasquez was immediately appointed court painter, with a regular salary in addition to the payments for his works, and is said to have received the exclusive privilege of portraying the king on canvas. In 1627 his "Expulsion of the Moriscoes from Spain " gained him the appointment of usher of the chamber. He be- came intimate with Rubens during that artist's embassy at Madrid. From 1629 to 1631 he was in Italy, and studied diligently the works of Raphael, Michel Angelo, and the other great masters; but the two works which he sent home from Rome, "Jacob with the Garment of Joseph" and "Apollo at the Forge of Vul- can," exhibit no trace of Italian influence. On his return to Spain, Philip established him in the palace, and sat to him for a celebrated equestrian portrait. In 1648-'51 he was again in Italy, to collect pictures and statuary for the king, and while in Rome painted a portrait VELIA of Innocent X. Subsequent to his return to Madrid he produced some of his finest works, including the celebrated Meninas, representing the infanta Margarita and her maids of honor, which, in respect to aerial and linear perspec- tive, local color, and animal and human life, is held to be almost unrivalled. In 1652 he re- ceived the exalted post of aposentador mayor (chief chamberlain), which required him to be constantly in attendance on the king, and in- terfered with his painting. In the spring of 1660, while engaged in arrangements for the royal family at the isle of Pheasants, on the frontiers of France, he was seized with a ter- tian fever, of which he died. His wife died of grief a week afterward. Owing to the fact that Velasquez painted almost exclusively for the king, and that his pictures, being royal property, were generally respected by Napo- leon's commanders, he is still to be seen to advantage only in Madrid. The royal gallery there contains about 60, comprising portraits, history, genre, and landscape, in all of which he was equally great. In delineations of fe- male beauty, and in subjects demanding an elevated ideal or poetical treatment, he was less successful ; and his pictures of this class, although powerful, are inferior to those of Murillo. His "Surrender of Breda" or Las lamas (" The Lances "), remarkable for the feeling and expression of the figures and the technical execution, was etched in 1875 by the French artist Lnguillermie. Of his genre pic- tures, the celebrated group entitled Los bebe- dores ("The Drinkers") is regarded for its hu- mor alone as entitling Velasquez to the name of the "Spanish Hogarth." See Sir William Stirling (Maxwell), "Annals of the Artists of Spain" (3 vols., London, 1848), and "Velas- quez and his Works" (1855). VELDE, Franz Karl van der, a German novelist, born in Breslau, Sept. 27, 1779, died there, April 6, 1824. He held judicial offices in va- rious places, and wrote poems and plays, but was chiefly known by his novels, the principal of which are Guide, Die Eroberung ton Mexico, Die Maltescr, Die Wiedertavfer^ Anted Gyl- lenstierna, and Christine und ihr Hof. His complete works have been published in 27 vols. (Dresden, 1830-'32). VELIA, or Elea, an ancient Greek city on the W. coast of southern Italy, believed to have been settled by Ionian colonists from Phocroa about 544 B. C. Like their compatriots in Massilia, they were celebrated for commercial enterprise. The city was the birthplace of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno, the disci- ples of Xenophanes of Colophon, and with him- founders of the Eleatic school of philosophy. (See ELEATIO SCHOOL.) Under the Roman re- public it was mainly noted as a pleasant resort on account of its fine climate. It was an epis- copal see from the early ages of Christianity till the end of the 6th century. Its subse- quent destruction has been ascribed to the ravages of the Saracens during the 8th and