VAGA, PERINO DEL (c. 1500–1547). Perino del Vaga was among those responsible for establishing the Mannerist style in Rome where he worked for a while as one of Raphael’s assistants. He was originally from Florence, where he studied with Andrea de’ Ceri and later Ridolfo, the son of Domenico del Ghirlandaio. Perino’s style owes debt to Michelangelo from whose works he drew while both in Florence and Rome. His most notable work is the Fall of the Giants (beg. 1529) in the Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants) of the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa, commissioned by Andrea Doria who in 1528 established himself as the dictator of the Genoese Republic. Since Doria’s palace was damaged by fire in 1527, Perino was also charged with the architectural renovations. There, a number of artists worked as his assistants, including Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis, called il Pordenone, and Domenico Beccafumi.
VALLA, LORENZO (1405–1457). Renaissance humanist and philosopher who in 1440 wrote The Donation of Constantine, declaring an eighth-century document used by the papacy to support its claims to temporal power to be a forgery. Lorenzo was a student of Florentine Chancellor Leonardo Bruni. In 1430, he accepted a lecturing position at the University of Pavia after his attempts to obtain employment in the papal court had failed. At Pavia he wrote his De voluptate (1431), composed as a discussion between Florentine humanists that criticizes Ciceronian Stoic ethics. An open letter he wrote in 1433 attacking a jurist and ridiculing Pavian jurisprudence forced him to leave the city. First he went to Milan and later Genoa, finally settling in Naples where he became secretary to King Alfonso I of Aragon. Aside from writing The Donation of Constantine while in his service, he also published the Dialecticae disputationes attacking Aristotelianism. His skepticism toward the papacy and Christian philosophy led to charges of heresy. In 1448, in spite of the allegations, he was invited by Pope Nicholas V to Rome to translate Greek texts. He died in Rome in 1457.
VANISHING POINT. See ONE-POINT LINEAR PERSPECTIVE.
VANITAS. In English, vanity. Vanitas is a theme in art that reminds viewers of the transience of life and admonishes them on the importance of living righteously to ensure salvation. The term is taken from a verse in Ecclesiastes (12: 8) that reads, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.” The Dutch, inspired by Caravaggio’s depictions of fruits in different stages of ripeness, were the first to use the vanitas theme in genre paintings. Wilting flowers, decomposing fruits, half-eaten foods, skulls, hourglasses, extinguished pipes, and bubbles, all form part of the visual vocabulary of vanitas paintings. See also MEMENTO MORI.
VASARI, GIORGIO (1511–1574). Tuscan painter, architect, and writer, best known for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, the earliest compendium of biographies of artists. Born in Arezzo, the 16-year-old Vasari was sent by Cardinal Silvio Passerini, who had close ties with the Medici, to Florence to apprentice with Andrea del Sarto alongside Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo da Pontormo. The cardinal also sponsored the artist’s humanist education alongside the young Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici, who were under his guardianship. Vasari’s relationship with the Medici was to sustain his artistic career for the rest of his life.
Vasari’s output as painter is vast as he steadily received commissions from this family as well as the papal court in Rome. In the 1540s he was occupied with the frescoes in the papal Palazzo della Cancelleria for Pope Paul III. For the studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Vasari contributed his Perseus and Andromeda (1570–1572) to represent the element of water and relate the story of the formation of coral. Other works by him include the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception (1541) and the Prophet Elijah (c. 1555), both in the Uffizi, Florence. Vasari’s greatest accomplishment as architect was the Uffizi (offices) (beg. 1560), a structure commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici to consolidate the governmental offices under one roof. Vasari also built for him a grotto (1556–1560) in the Boboli Gardens located between the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti where the Medici resided.
Though Vasari had a distinguished career as artist, he is most often invoked for the wealth of information he provided in his Lives, first published in 1550. The work is a product of the Renaissance mindset that individual achievement should be recorded so it may inspire others to excel. The Lives is a chronological account of the progress of art divided into three stages. In the first stage, the leading figure is Giotto who, in Vasari’s view, was responsible for the rebirth of art after the decline it had suffered when the Roman era ended. Giotto and his followers examined nature carefully, tried to imitate its colors and forms on the pictorial surface, and to portray their figures expressively. The second stage is the era of Masaccio who applied science to art, introducing anatomical realism and one-point linear and atmospheric perspective. The third and final stage, the era of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo, resulted in the complete triumph over nature. Of these three key figures, Vasari believed that it was Michelangelo, whom he knew personally, who had achieved the heights of perfection. Vasari’s text continues to be employed as a major source of information on the artists of the Renaissance and its three-partite division of the period still serves as the basis for the modern assessment of Renaissance art.
VAULT. An arched ceiling built of brick, stone, or concrete. Of these materials, concrete is the most effective as it allows for greater expanses since it forms one solid, rigid, surface requiring a lesser number of internal supports. The solid surfaces can then be decorated with coffers, mosaics, or frescoes. There are many types of vaults. A barrel vault is a tunnel-like, semicylindrical ceiling, while a groin or cross vault is composed of two intersecting barrel vaults at right angles. The advantage of this system is that it allows for the inclusion of windows on the sides to bring lighting into the interior of the structure it covers. Groin vaults also require less construction materials and labor. Sometimes the groin vaults are ribbed. The ribs serve various purposes: to reduce the number of wooden supports needed during construction, to lighten the thickness of the groin vaults and therefore allowing for larger windows, and to visually separate them into segments, their repetition granting a rhythmic quality to the building. Pointed ribs, common in Gothic architecture, provide greater stability than the rounded ribs of Romanesque construction. A dome is another type of vaulting, a semicircular structure that sits on a drum or is carried by pendentives. Domes are often placed above the crossing (where the nave and transept cross) of churches. Their lantern and piercings on the drum allow for light to radiate over the altar, giving it a mystical quality.
VELÁZQUEZ, DIEGO (1599–1660). The most important Baroque master in Spain. Velázquez was born in Seville to a family from the lesser nobility. He studied under Francisco Pacheco, marrying his daughter in 1618. Pacheco was not a talented painter, but he was interested in theory and surrounded himself with scholars and poets with whom Velázquez gained contacts. In his Sevillian period, Velázquez painted mainly bodegónes, among these the Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618; Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland) and the Water Carrier of Seville (1619; London, Wellington Museum). In 1622, he went to Madrid in the hopes of becoming King Philip IV’s court painter. At first, he was not successful, yet in the following year he tried again and was in fact appointed to the king’s court. From this point on he devoted himself primarily to portraiture, also creating some mythologies and religious paintings.
At the Madrid royal palace, Velázquez had the opportunity to study the works in the king’s collection, including the many paintings by Titian. In response, Velázquez loosened his brushwork and began incorporating the landscape into some of his works, as exemplified by Los Borrachos (1628; Madrid, Prado), a bacchic scene with a reclining satyr taken directly from Titian. When Velázquez was painting this work, Peter Paul Rubens arrived in Madrid, sent there on diplomatic mission by Archduchess Isabella of Flanders, the Spanish king’s aunt. Velázquez and Rubens immediately struck up a friendship and together they studied carefully the art of the Venetians in the king’s collection.
In 1629, Velázquez traveled to Italy, spending most of his stay in Rome, but also stopping in Genoa, Venice, and Milan. After this trip, he acquired greater confidence and his artistic abilities improved in great measure. In 1635, he painted his famed Surrender at Breda (Madrid, Prado) for the Hall of Realms in the Palace of El Buen Retiro. He in fact also directed the decoration of this room, granting commissions to other masters and contributing five portraits of the royal family. His Mars (c. 1639–1641; Madrid, Prado) he painted for the decoration of the Torre de la Parada, the royal hunting lodge, and, in 1648, he rendered the Rokeby Venus (London, National Gallery) for the Marquis of Carpio and Heliche.
Velázquez’ most striking and original works are the Fable of Arachne, a mythology witnessed by two Spanish ladies, and Las Meninas (both 1656; Madrid, Prado), a group portrait of members of the royal court, including Velázquez himself. The first presents women in the foreground spinning and carding wool in preparation for weaving. In the background the fable of Arachne unfolds where she challenges the goddess Minerva to a weaving contest (which she ultimately loses and is transformed into a spider doomed to spin webs for the rest of her existence). In the background is Titian’s Rape of Europa, made to look like a tapestry as the Ovidian fable specifies that this was the subject of the tapestries the two women wove. The second work shows Velázquez himself engaged in the act of painting in front of a large canvas, perhaps a portrait of the Infanta Margarita, Philip IV’s daughter, who appears in the foreground with her maids of honor, dwarfs, chambermaids, and other attendants. The reflection in the background mirror is that of the king and his consort, which raises questions as to whether the artist is in fact painting the portrait of Margarita or the royal couple. Have the royal couple just entered the room and interrupted the scene? And why is the viewer placed where the king and queen stand outside the picture? Velázquez’s studio has been identified as the place where the scene unfolds, which would denote that his work wishes to ennoble the act of painting and the artist’s own social standing, as the implication is that royalty comes to him and not the other way around. Velázquez did in fact exert great effort in asserting his nobility and it was recognized soon after he painted Las Meninas. In the work, he wears the cross of Santiago, an order to which only nobles could belong. Legend has it that the king himself added the cross to the painting when the honor of entering the order was granted to Velázquez.
VENEZIANO, DOMENICO (DOMENICO DI BARTOLOMEO DA VENEZIA; c. 1410–1461). Venetian painter who settled in Florence in 1439 after requesting from Piero de’ Medici help in obtaining a commission from Piero’s father, Cosimo. In that year, Domenico Veneziano is documented working on the frescoes from the life of the Virgin in the Church of Sant’ Egidio, Florence, unfortunately destroyed, which suggests that his plea to the Medici was successful. According to Giorgio Vasari, Veneziano was murdered by Andrea del Castagno who, jealous of the artist’s oil painting abilities, struck him with an iron bar. In the 19th century it was discovered, however, that Castagno died in 1457, four years earlier than Veneziano. Vasari was writing at a time when debates on the merits of colorism versus draughtsmanship were taking place. It is possible that he was metaphorically arguing for the superiority of draughtsmanship, usually associated with the Florentine School of which Castagno formed part, over colorism, characteristic of the Venetian School represented by Veneziano.
Very few works by Veneziano have survived. A Virgin and Child and two heads of saints (both c. 1440–1445) in the National Gallery, London, are the extant fragments of a street tabernacle he painted at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi, in Florence. The Adoration of the Magi (1440–1443) in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, is a courtly rendition dependent on the International Style. Veneziano’s best-known painting is the St. Lucy Altarpiece of c. 1445–1447 in the Uffizi, Florence, one of the earliest sacra conversazione types. His vivid colorism and interest in perspective are clearly demonstrated by this painting. Veneziano’s last known work is the fresco of Sts. John the Baptist and Francis (c. 1455–1460; Florence, Museo dell’ Opera di Santa Croce), painted for the Cavalcanti Chapel at Santa Croce, Florence, and removed from the wall in the mid-1560s during renovations.
VENEZIANO, PAOLO (active c. 1333–1360). The first Venetian painter to be known by name. Although Giotto had already introduced a new mode of painting that rejected the Maniera Greca and depended on the empirical observation of nature, Paolo Veneziano nevertheless continued to paint in the Greek mode. The reason for this is that the style was well suited to Venetian taste as Venice had close ties to Byzantium from where the Maniera Greca originated. One of Paolo’s most important commissions is the Coronation of the Virgin painted in 1324 (Washington, National Gallery), a work featuring heavy gilding, emphasis on lines, gold striations to denote the folds of drapery, and brilliant colors typical of the Maniera Greca mode. His other noteworthy commission is the series of wooden panels he painted in 1345 for Doge Andrea Dandolo as the cover to the Pala D’Oro, a major bejeweled altarpiece from the 10th century housed in the Basilica of San Marco.
VENICE. During the Roman era, Venice was a military outpost inhabited mainly by fishermen. It was also the place where salt and clay for brick production could be extracted. The barbarian invasions caused the inhabitants of nearby cities to seek refuge in Venice as its marshy islets along the Adriatic sea provided natural protection. In the fifth century, Venice was ruled by the Byzantine Emperor Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who carried out a major building campaign in nearby Ravenna that was to influence the art and architecture of the region for several centuries. At the end of the seventh century, the various settlements of Venice pulled together and, in 697, they elected Doge Paoluccio Anafesto as their leader. By the ninth century, trade with Byzantium, the Levant, and the Holy Roman Empire established Venice’s economic preeminence. The need to find secure access to the markets north of the Alps led to the acquisition of Treviso, Belluno, and Feltre in the 14th century. At the turn of the 15th century, the Venetians took Padua, Vincenza, Verona, Friuli, Brescia, and Bergamo and, by 1500, their territory was extended farther to include Cremona. In 1508, the League of Cambrai was formed between Pope Julius II, King Louis XII of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I to curtail Venice’s territorial expansion. The league collapsed in 1510 due to disagreements between Louis and the pope, who now allied himself with Venice. Together they drove the French out of Italy in 1512, but disagreements caused Venice to change sides. In 1515, the French, now led by Francis I, regained their territories in Italy and, in 1517 the lands taken from the Venetian Republic were returned.
Palpable in the art of Venice is the Eastern influence that came with trade and Byzantine rule early in its history. The Doge’s Palace (1340–1438) blends French Gothic arcades and traceries with Eastern flamelike spires, and the Basilica of San Marco (beg. 1063) relies completely on the Byzantine style, especially for its Greek cross plan, the shape of its domes, its monumental scale, and mosaic decorations. A school of painting did not develop in Venice until the 14th century when Paolo Veneziano began rendering scenes in the Maniera Greca, brought to Italy from Byzantium in the 13th century. This style remained the preferred mode of painting in the region until the early 15th century when the Bellini and Andrea Mantegna, influenced by foreign masters such as Donatello, Andrea del Castagno, and Antonello da Messina, finally embraced a more naturalistic mode of representation. The 16th century saw the art of Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, and Titian whose colorism and experiments in perspective laid the ground for the developments of the Baroque era.
VENUS. The goddess of love, Venus was born from the foam caused by the severed testicles of Uranus that Saturn threw into the sea. She was brought to the shores of Cythera, her sacred island, on a seashell, which is how Sandro Botticelli depicted her in the Birth of Venus (c. 1485; Florence, Uffizi). Frustrated by her rejection, Jupiter married her off to the deformed Vulcan, but, in spite of this union, Venus had many illicit affairs. Annibale Carracci depicted her at her toilet assisted by the Graces (Venus Adorned by the Graces; 1594–1595; Washington, National Gallery), the event after her indiscretion with Mars. Titian painted her trying to stop Adonis, whom she loved, from hunting the boar that would cause his death (Venus and Adonis; 1553–1554; Madrid, Prado), and Annibale rendered her in the Farnese ceiling (c. 1597–1600; Rome, Palazzo Farnese) in bed with Anchises, with whom she bore Aeneas, the hero of Virgil’s Aeneid. Paris gave Venus the Golden Apple of Hesperides as reward for her beauty, the scene depicted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530 (The Judgment of Paris; Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle), and Peter Paul Rubens in 1602 (London, National Gallery). The reclining Venus became a major subject in art, as established by Giorgione in his Sleeping Venus (c. 1510; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie). She was sometimes paired with her son Cupid by artists such as Cranach (Venus and Cupid; 1520; Bucharest, Muzeul National), Agnolo Bronzino (Allegory of Venus and Cupid; 1540s; London, National Gallery), and Lorenzo Lotto (Venus and Cupid; c. 1525; New York, Metropolitan Museum). See also VENUS PUDICA.
VENUS ADORNED BY THE GRACES (1594–1595; Washington, National Gallery). Painted by Annibale Carracci, this work betrays his interest in Venetian art as Venus is the nude reclining type favored by Venetian masters such as Giorgione and Titian. She is as voluptuous as her Venetian counterparts, around her the usual props, including the curtain behind her, the luscious landscape, and the pudgy putti. The scene derives from Homer’s Odyssey when Mars and Venus are caught by Vulcan, her consort, in an act of infidelity. Venus retires to Cythera, her sacred island, where she is bathed and adorned by the Graces while she awaits Vulcan’s return from collecting the adulterer’s fee from Mars, the scene shown in the background. The painting is thought to have been commissioned on the occasion of a wedding celebration as denoted by certain elements within the work. Venus is the goddess of love, Mars and Vulcan are symbols of passion and generative heat, and Bacchus, shown as a statue on a fountain in the background, is a symbol of fertility. The details of the commission are unknown, though by 1638, the painting was in the possession of the Bolognese Count Alessandro Tanari.
VENUS PUDICA. In English, modest Venus. The term describes a classical sculpture type where Venus is surprised at her bath and covers her nudity with her arms. Examples of this kind were known in the Renaissance, including a Roman copy in the Medici collection, now in the Uffizi, Florence. Masaccio borrowed the model to depict his Eve in the Expulsion from Paradise in the Brancacci Chapel (c. 1425) at Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, who feels ashamed of her nudity. Sandro Botticelli used it in his Birth of Venus (c. 1485; Florence, Uffizi) appropriately as it depicts the moment when the goddess, having emerged from the waters, arrives in Cythera, her sacred island, where one of the Hours (or perhaps Flora or Pomona) awaits to cover her nudity with a flowered mantle. In his Venus and Anchises on the Farnese ceiling (c. 1597–1600; Rome, Palazzo Farnese), Annibale Carracci used the pose to denote Venus’ hesitation on whether to give in to the sexual advances of a mere mortal.
VERONESE, PAOLO (PAOLO CALIARI; 1528–1588). Master from the Venetian School who competed for commissions with Tintoretto and Titian. Veronese was from the city of Verona, hence his surname, where he was trained by a local painter named Antonio Badile. In 1553, at 25, he moved to Venice where he became one of the city’s leading and most innovative masters. Veronese particularly excelled at rendering illusionistic ceilings, as the Triumph of Mordecai (1556) at San Sebastiano and the Triumph of Venice in the Hall of the Great Council at the Doge’s Palace (c. 1585) demonstrate.
In 1560, the artist traveled to Rome and upon his return he received the commission to paint a series of allegorical and contemporary scenes in the Villa Barbaro at Maser for Marcantonio and Daniele Barbaro. These works show that Veronese closely studied Raphael’s frescoes in the Villa Farnesina, Rome (1513–1518), as some of the figures are borrowed from that source. In 1563, Veronese worked on the Marriage at Cana in the refectory of the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, a scene that depicts Christ’s first miracle as a contemporary Venetian banquet. The figures are dressed in sumptuous costumes and engaged in eating and conversation. In the foreground, the three musicians who entertain the crowd are portraits of the artists Jacopo Bassano, Titian, and Veronese himself. With this, Veronese compared the art of painting to music to argue for the placement of his craft, which until then was considered a manual labor, among the liberal arts. Veronese’s Mars and Venus United by Love (c. 1570; New York, Metropolitan Museum), Allegory of Love (1570; London, National Gallery), and Rape of Europa (1580; Venice, Doge’s Palace) exemplify his ability to render sensuous and luxurious mythological and allegorical scenes.
In 1573 Veronese painted the Feast in the House of Levi (Venice, Galleria dell’ Accademia) for the refectory of the Dominican Monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, for which he was summoned to the tribunal of the Inquisition. Its judges deemed the presence of buffoons, dwarfs, inebriated figures, and animals in the painting to be inappropriate for the depiction of the Lord’s Last Supper, the work’s original subject. Veronese was able to avoid the charges of heresy levied against him simply by changing the painting’s title.
Veronese’s di sotto in sù experiments had much to do with the development of illusionistic ceilings in Italy, as it paved the way for the grand Baroque ceiling frescoes of Giovanni Lanfranco, Pietro da Cortona, and later Giovanni Battista Gauli and Andrea Pozzo. His mythologies, with their exceptional colorism, shimmering fabric effects, and lush brushwork, were also a major force, inspiring artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
VERROCCHIO, ANDREA DEL (1425–1488). Italian sculptor and painter who worked primarily for the Medici and who trained Leonardo da Vinci in his workshop. Among his paintings are the Baptism of Christ (1472–1475) in the Uffizi, commissioned for the monastery Church of San Salvi, Florence, the Virgin and Child with Sts. John the Baptist and Donatus (1475–1483) at the Cathedral of Pistoia, and Tobias and the Angel (1470–1480) in the London National Gallery. These works demonstrate Verrocchio’s keen interest in rendering the details of the human anatomy. Along with Antonio del Pollaiuolo, he in fact was among the first artists to utilize a scientific approach to the study of the human form, engaging in dissections to gain understanding of the body’s underlying structure.
Verrocchio’s greatest achievements are in sculpture. His Doubting of Thomas (c. 1465–1483) at Orsanmichele, Florence, commissioned by the Guild of Merchants, is a scene of intense drama achieved by the movement of Thomas’ hand toward Christ’s side wound, Christ’s blessing hand over the saint’s head, and the complicated curvilinear folds of the draperies. The David (early 1470s; Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello) he created for Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici as a commentary on Donatello’s bronze David, also in the Medici collection. Unlike Donatello’s version, Verrocchio’s is clothed, less sensuous, with a sword that accords with the figure’s scale, a head of Goliath visible from the front, a less exaggerated sway of the body, and well-defined musculature. Verrocchio’s final work is his Colleoni Monument (1481–1496) in the Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Loosely based on Donatello’s Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata (c. 1445–1453; Padua, Piazza del Santo), it portrays the Venetian army commander as a fearless individual aggressively straddling his horse. Verrocchio’s interest in physiognomy, evidenced by Colleoni’s leonine facial features, exerted tremendous influence on his pupil, Leonardo.
VICES. See VIRTUES AND VICES.
VILLA FARNESINA, ROME. Baldassare Peruzzi built the Villa Farnesina for the papal banker Agostino Chigi in 1508–1511—the first suburban villa built in Rome in the 16th century. It replicated the country houses of the Roman patriciate described in ancient literature, its proportional relations of width, length, and height and tripartite plan taken directly from Vitruvius’ treatise on architecture. Peruzzi provided a U-shaped two-storied structure with two open logge (now glazed over) on the ground floor. The Loggia di Psiche, between the two protruding wings, was originally the villa’s main entry. In front of it was a podium, now sunken, used as a stage for theatrical productions. Its exterior frieze is sculpted all’ antica with putti clasping festoons and ribbons, heralding the lighthearted nature of the villa’s interior ornamentations. In the Loggia de Psiche (1517–1518), Raphael and assistants frescoed on the ceiling the Council of the Gods and the Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche, both made to look like tapestries hung to protect visitors from the sun. The second loggia, the Sala di Galatea, overlooks the Tiber River and features Raphael’s famed Galatea fresco (1513) on one of the walls and a ceiling by Peruzzi (c. 1511) that depicts the owner’s astrological chart. Sebastiano del Piombo rendered the lunette frescoes with mythologies, including the Fall of Icarus and Fall of Phaeton.
In c. 1517, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called il Sodoma, was charged with the decoration of the villa’s bedroom, the Stanza delle Nozze. He painted scenes from the life of the ancient hero Alexander the Great, including his marriage to Roxana, his meeting with Darius’ widow, and his taming of Bucephalus, his horse. Next to the Sala delle Nozze is the Sala delle Prospettive (1515–1517) by Peruzzi, a masterpiece of illusionism as the frescoes have transformed the room into a feigned loggia with painted views of the Roman countryside. Agostino Chigi died in 1520 and, at the end of the century, the Farnese purchased the villa, hence the name Farnesina. Today it functions as the Accademia dei Lincei, an academy of the sciences, and the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, the Roman department of drawings and prints.
VINCI, LEONARDO DA. See LEONARDO DA VINCI.
VIRGIL (PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO; 70–19 BCE). Considered the most important poet of the ancient Roman era, Virgil was born in a small village near Mantua to a well-to-do family of landowners. He was educated in Cremona, Milan, and Rome, where he studied medicine, mathematics, law, and rhetoric. Civil disturbances in 49 BCE forced Virgil to flee from Rome to Naples, and there he studied with the Epicurean philosopher Siro and began his career as poet. He composed his Eclogues in 39 BCE and the Georgics 10 years later, both on the rustic life. With Emperor Augustus’ backing, he wrote his greatest masterpiece, the Aeneid, an epic poem intended to build upon Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey that combined history and mythology, which proved to be a major source for artists. Virgil died while journeying to Greece when he caught a fever that proved fatal.
VIRGIN MARY. The mother of God whom Catholic doctrine declares she conceived without sin. Mary is the most highly regarded of all saints. She was the daughter of Joachim and Anne who conceived her in old age, and was betrothed to Joseph when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would conceive the Christ Child through the Holy Spirit. The Annunciation is one of the most popular subjects in religious art, with versions by Simone Martini (1333; Uffizi, Florence), Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1435; Paris, Louvre), and Tintoretto (1583–1587; Venice, Scuola di San Rocco) serving as examples. Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth to tell her the good news and found out that Elizabeth too was with child; her son, also conceived in old age, was St. John the Baptist. Federico Barocci depicted this scene (1586) for the Visitation Chapel at the Chiesa Nuova, Rome. Once Christ was born, Joseph took the Holy Family to Egypt to escape persecution from Herod who was afraid that the child would take his throne. The Flight into Egypt is the topic of Annibale Carracci’s landscape in the Galleria Doria-Pamphili (1603) and one of the scenes in Melchior Broederlam’s altarpiece for the Carthusian Monastery of Dijon (1394–1399).
Mary was present at the marriage at Cana where Christ performed his first miracle, a scene depicted by Paolo Veronese in 1563 in the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. At the Crucifixion, Christ placed Mary in St. John’s care. She was present when the apostles began to speak in tongues, the topic of El Greco’s Pentecost (c. 1608–1610; Madrid, Prado). In turn, the apostles were present when she fell into her Dormition, as depicted by Hugo van der Goes in c. 1481 (Bruges, Groeningemuseum). Her ascent into heaven finally became Catholic dogma in 1950, but had been a major subject in Renaissance and Baroque art, with Titian’s Assumption (1516–1518; Venice, Santa Maria dei Frari) providing one of the most superb examples.
The concept of the Virgin’s Immaculate Conception was declared dogma in 1854, though it had already gained tremendous popularity in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, particularly in Spain where the subject was often depicted. Diego Velázquez’ rendition of 1619 (London, National Gallery) provides one of many examples. The most popular depiction of Mary is as an iconic figure carrying the Christ Child, in the Virgin and Child by Simone Martini (c. 1325; Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) and Giovanni Bellini’s Madonna and Child (late 1480s; New York, Metropolitan Museum) providing two examples. See also MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN.
VIRTUES AND VICES. Virtues and vices are essential concepts of moral philosophy as they represent the strengths and weaknesses of humanity. Among the main themes in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers is the attainment of a virtuous existence through the rejection of pleasure. The fathers of Christianity also wrote extensively on virtues and vices, though these were not standardized until about the 10th or 11th centuries. The virtues are divided into two groups. The first, the Cardinal Virtues, derive from Plato’s Republic and consist of temperance, prudence, justice, and fortitude. The second, the Theological Virtues, are faith, hope, and charity. These are listed in the Bible, in I Corinthians 13:13. The vices, or Seven Deadly Sins, are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. Virtues and vices often appear in art. Giotto included their personifications in the lower tier of the Arena Chapel frescoes in Padua (1305). In Andrea Mantegna’s Expulsion of the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (1497; Paris, Louvre), Minerva rids the garden of evil. The Virtues are included in the lower panels of Andrea Pisano’s bronze doors for the Baptistery of Florence (1330–1334) and in Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia in Perugia (1414–1419). The Vices appear in Hieronymus Bosch’s Hay Wain Triptych (c. 1490–1495; El Escorial, Monasterio de San Lorenzo) and they are the main subject of his Seven Deadly Sins tabletop (c. 1475) at the Madrid Prado Museum.
VISCONTI FAMILY. The Visconti became the predominant family of Milan when in 1277 Ottone Visconti, the local archbishop, wrested control of the city from Napo de la Torre. In 1297, Ottone arranged for the appointment of his great-nephew Matteo as Capitano del Popolo (Captain of the People) and in 1311 Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII also made Matteo his imperial vicar. With this, Matteo was able to establish his lordship over the Lombard territory. He married off his son Galeazzo to Beatrice d’Este, a union that granted the Visconti a title of nobility. In the mid-14th century, the Visconti also married into the French and English monarchic houses, confirming their position of power. In 1395, they obtained the title of dukes from Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslaus and in this capacity they ruled Milan until 1447, when Filippo Maria Visconti died without a male heir. Francesco Sforza, husband to Filippo Maria’s daughter Bianca, inherited his father-in-law’s dominion and, with this, the Sforza ruled Milan, with some interruptions, until 1535 when the family died out. See also VISCONTI, GIANGALEAZZO.
VISCONTI, GIANGALEAZZO (1351–1402). Duke of Milan from 1395 until his death in 1402. The Visconti dominion had been split between Giangaleazzo’s father, Galeazzo II, and uncle Bernabò. When his father died, Giangaleazzo imprisoned his uncle and seized his territories on the Lombard region, consolidating once again the Visconti lands. In 1360, Giangaleazzo married Isabelle of Valois, daughter of King John II of France, whose dowry included land in the Champagne region, thus establishing monarchic ties to secure his position of power. Then in 1395, Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslaus granted him the title of duke. Giangaleazzo’s rule was dominated by his campaign to expand his dominion. He waged war against Florence and managed to have the city completely surrounded when, in 1402, he suddenly died from the plague. Giangaleazzo was a generous patron. He initiated construction of the Certosa di Pavia, a splendid Carthusian monastery and church complex. He also supported the University of Pavia and the production of manuscript illumination in the Lombard region. See also ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT.
VISITATION. After being told by the Archangel Gabriel that she would give birth to the Christ Child (the Annunciation), the Virgin Mary went to visit her cousin, St. Elizabeth, to share with her the good news. Elizabeth told her that she too was with child, a miracle as she was beyond her child-bearing years. That child was St. John the Baptist who would later meet up with Christ in the desert and baptize him. Roger van der Weyden (c. 1435; Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste) depicted the Virgin and Elizabeth meeting at a path that leads to a Gothic church, both tenderly placing their hands on each other’s pregnant belly. Jacopo da Pontormo depicted this subject for the Church of San Michele, Carmignano in 1528–1529, an unusual Mannerist painting with elongated figures and a lozengelike composition. Barocci created his version in 1586 for the Visitation Chapel at the Chiesa Nuova, Rome, a work so well received that for three days after its installation the people of Rome stood in long lines to view it.
VITRUVIUS (MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO; c. 80–25 BCE). Roman engineer and writer who served Emperor Caesar Augustus. Vitruvius was the author of the only architectural treatise from antiquity to have survived, De architectura. Although this text was known throughout the Middle Ages, it was not until Poggio Bracciolini found an original ancient version that interest in the principles of ancient architecture as expounded by Vitruvius increased in great measure. In 1486, the first printed volume of Vitruvius’ treatise was published and, in 1511, an illustrated edition was also made available. Daniele Barbaro translated the text from Latin to Italian in 1556, with this volume accompanied by illustrations carried out by Andrea Palladio.
Vitruvius believed that architecture must reflect utility, strength, and beauty, this last achieved through symmetry and the relationship of its parts to the whole. The proportions of a building should conform to those of the human form and its design should relate to its function and type. Vitruvius provided the three classifications of the orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) normally found in ancient structures, explaining their derivation, use, proportions, and symbolism. He also provided information on ancient city planning, building materials, hydraulics, and military machinery. Vitruvius’ text had a great impact on the development of Renaissance architecture and architectural theory. It inspired Leon Battista Alberti to write his own treatise, De re aedificatoria. Palladio’s Quattro Libri synthesizes the materials expounded by Alberti and Vitruvius, and his Teatro Olimpico in Vincenza reconstructs a Roman theater described in the De architectura. Giuliano da Sangallo’s Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano is based on a description of a suburban villa by Vitruvius, and the Villa Farnesina in Rome by Baldassare Peruzzi has the proportional relations of width, length, and height and three-partite plan also provided by the ancient writer.
VORAGINE, JACOBUS DA (c. 1230–c. 1298). Dominican priest and hagiologist who served as archbishop of Genoa from 1292 until his death in c. 1298. Voragine is best known as the author of the Golden Legend, a collection of stories of the saints that became a major source for artists. He also authored the Chronicon Genovese, a chronicle of Genoa that provides important historical information, and a series of theological writings, including the Sermones de sanctis, de tempore, quadragesimales, de Beata Maria Virgine, a collection of 307 sermons.
VOUET, SIMON (1590–1649). French artist born in Paris to a bourgeois family, his father a painter employed in the French court. In 1604, at 14, Vouet was called to England to render the portrait of a French lady and, in 1611, he accompanied the French Ambassador to Constantinople where he remained for a year painting portraits of Sultan Achmet I. These works are unfortunately lost. From Constantinople, he went to Venice in 1613, and in the following year to Rome where he supported himself financially through a pension from the French crown. Visits to Naples, Genoa, Modena, and Bologna gave him the opportunity to study the art in major Italian collections. In 1624, Vouet was elected president of the Accademia di San Luca, attesting to his success. The fact that many of his early paintings are lost has hindered the tracing of his artistic development and reconstruction of a reasonable chronology.
Upon arrival in Rome, Vouet began experimenting with the Caravaggist mode of painting, with St. Jerome and the Angel of Judgment (c. 1625; Washington, National Gallery) and the Birth of the Virgin (c. 1620; Rome, San Francesco a Ripa) providing examples of this phase in his career. By the mid-1620s, the popularity of Caravaggism had waned and patrons demanded works in the more classicizing style of the Carracci. Vouet responded by eliminating the theatrical lighting and crude figure types of his Caravaggist phase and by replacing them with more elegant renditions. His Time Vanquished by Hope, Love, and Beauty (1627; Madrid, Prado) shows this change and in particular the influence of Guido Reni.
Vouet was summoned back to France in 1627 and appointed Peintre du Roi (The King’s Painter). At the Louvre, he established a school of painting where he trained the next generation of French masters, including Eustache Le Seur, Charles Lebrun, and Pierre Mignard. His studio became the locus of dissemination of the official artistic ideology of the French monarchs—Louis XIII, his wife Anne of Austria, and mother Marie de’ Medici. Many of the large decorative programs Vouet carried out in Paris were destroyed. Of his surviving works, the Allegory of Wealth (c. 1630–1635; Paris, Louvre), believed to have been painted for Louis XIII’s principal residence, St. Germain-en-Laye, and the Presentation (1641; Paris, Louvre), painted for the high altar of the Novitiate Church of the Jesuits in Paris and commissioned by Cardinal Armand Richelieu, are among the most notable examples. Vouet is credited with bringing the classicizing Italian style of painting to France and therefore changing the course of art in the region.