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* VAUGHAN. 29 'North American Review for March, 1817), deal- ing with the maladies coitimon in the eolony, is prefaced with a short autohiogra]ih.y. Vauglian's colony, owing to the severe clinjate, eventually failed. VAULT (OF. volte, voutc, voultc, Fr. voilte, vault, from Lat. volutus, p.p. of volverc, ioToW; connected with Goth, icalajan, AS. wcalwian, Eng. wallow) . A term used to designate the cov- ering of a building constructed of masonry or in imitation of masonry in curved surfaces, as dis- tinguished from ceiling or roof. The principal classes of vaults are: the dome, the liarrel vault, the groin vault, and the rib (or Gothic) vault. Each of these classes has many sub-varieties. (For the difl'erent forms of the dome, such as the Pelasgic, Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, IMoham- medan, Gothic, Renaissance, Russian, the false dome, the low dome, the high dome on a drum, the bulbous dome, the ribbed dome, the dome on pendcntives, see the article on DoilE. ) It was a form of vault that nourished mainly in the Orient, being only slightly used in Western Eu- rope until the late ^Middle Ages and in Hellenic lands only by the Byzantine school. The earliest form appears to have been the barrel or tunnel vault, a continuous vault usual- ly of either semicircular or pointed cross-section. This vault was used by the Babylonians and Assyrians in both these forms, not only in sub- terranean passages, as at Nippur and Nirarud, but in the large palace halls, as at Khorsabad. The Egyptians, on the contrary, seldom used it where it w'ould show. It was known, although used only in this inconspicuous fashion, to all the Mediterranean peo]des — the Hittites, Pelasgians, early Italian races, and Etruscans — competing with the dome in their subterranean construc- tions such as tombs, treasure-houses, drains, etc. The Cloaca Maxima shows how the early Ro- mans adopted it, and finally developed it as one of their favorite ways of covering large interiors above ground by the sided dome and groin vaiilt. Used inconspicuovisly by Byzantine and hardly at all by early Christian art, it was adopted by certain schools of Romanesque architecture, es- pecially in France, as in Provence and Burgundy. Gothic art discarded it, but the Renaissance re- vived it, as it did so many Roman forms. The groin vault was formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults and appears to have been first used to any extent by the Romans of the late Republican and Imperial periods and by them transmitted to later schools. It could be used only in a square vaulting compartment and had no elasticity of shape. In early mediaeval schools it was even more generally used than the barrel vault, especially over the side-aisles of churches and other narrow spaces. When strengthened by ribs at the groins it developed into the Ro- manesque vaulting of the Lombard, Rhenish, and Norman schools, which was superseded by the Gothic form of ribbed vault. While the quadripartite ribbed vault might he superficially taken to be a groined vault with the addition of surface ribs along the diagonal in- tersecting edges, the wall line, and the line of division between the neighboring vault, this would be a fundamental error, because in the ribl,>ed vault each compartment between ribs is an independent structure transmitting thrust to VAUVENARGUES. the ribs, and the ribs themselves form an inde- pendent framework. There are quadripartite, sex[)artite, and other forms, according to the nundier of such compartments; domical ribbed v:i lilts have more; the curved lines of Gothic chili r-aislcs and chapels led to other intricate and irregular combinations, so that there is an almost infinite variety in riblied vaulting. The history of its origin and its importance as the basal unit in (Jotliic architecture is explained under Gothic Arciiitectire. (For fancy ribbed vault, see Rin. ) For various unusual forms, such as cloistered vault, wagon vault, the various forms of conical vaults, as well as for a technical study, consult "Vault," in Sturgis, Dictionary of Architecture (New York, ]il02). See also "Con- struction" and "Vofite," in ViolIet-le-Duc, Die- tionnaire rainonnce dc I'lirchitccturc (Paris, 18.54- 08) ; llaase, Dcr acnilhrhau (Halle, 1900). VAULTING-SHAFT. A small upright col- umn, or pier, supporting the ribs of a Gothic vault. These shafts generally occur in clusters, and may cither spring from the ground or be supported on small corbels in the wall. They are usually engaged, but may be free-standing. VAUTIER, vft'tya', Benjamin (1820-98). A Swiss-German genre painter. He -was born at Merges, on Lake Geneva, studied at Geneva, then at the Diisseldorf Academy under Schadow, was a pu])il of Rudolf Jordan, and for some years devoted himself to the study of peasant life in the Bernese Oberland. After a short sojourn in Paris in 1856 he settled at Diisseldorf and in. 1858 achieved a brilliant success with his "Church Scene," which was followed by a series of char- acteristic episodes in the life of the Swiss and Swabian peasantry. Some of the most promi- nent among these pictures, distinguished by good drawing, harmonious color, and genuine feeling, are: "Peasants at Cards Surprised by Their Wives" (1862, Leipzig Museum); "Peasant and Broker" (1865, gold medal, Paris) and "In- voluntary Confession" (both in the Basel Mu- seum ) ; "Saying Grace" ( Bern Museum ) ; "Funeral Repast in Bernese Oberland" (1865, Cologne Museum) ; "The First Dancing Lesson" (1868) and "At the Sickbed" (1873, both in the National Gallerv, Berlin) ; "Toast to the Bride" (1870) and "Prodigal Son" (1885, both in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg) ; "A Breathing In- terval at Wedding Dance" (1878. Dresden Gal- lery) ; "Arrest of Jewish Usurer" (1879), one of his most remarkable works; "Forsaken" ( 1892, Breslau Museum) ; and. "Market Day in Black Forest" (1896, Henneberg Gallery, Zurich). He also illustrated Auerhach's Barfiissele. Immer- mann's Ohcrhof, Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea, and other literary works. For his biography, con- sult Rosenberg (Bielefeld, 1897), and Pecht, Deiitsrhr Kiiiixtirr, iii. (Niirdlingen, 1881). VAUVENARGUES, vrtv'narg', Luc de Cla- PIERS. Jlarquis de (1715-47). A French moral- ist, born at Aix, in Provence. He entered the army at .seventeen, and served in Italy and Bohemia, devoting himself subsequently to litera- ture. He was a man of lofty character and en- joyed the friendship of Marmontel and Voltaire. His Introduction a la connnissance de Vcaprit luimain, with certain Hfflexions and Maximes appended (1740). is more famous for the ap- pendix than for the body of the work, and gains