265 



VAN ACHEN, HANS. 



VANBRUQH, SIR JOHN. 



unusually great knowledge of morbid anatomy, he was particularly 

 celebrated for accuracy of diagnosis, and for his skill in treating those 

 who suffered under diseases reputed incurable. To these he gave 

 indeed his chief attention ; striving to discern what these diseases 

 are in their early stages, when, if ever, some remedy might be used. 

 Among the most remarkable results which ho thus attained was that 

 mode of treating aneurisms which is still commonly called Valsalva's 

 method, and which consists in reducing the force of the patient's 

 circulation to the lowest degree compatible with life, by repeated 

 bleedings, absolute rest, and starvation ; a method which, often as it 

 failed, is the only one which offers any prospect of success in aneurism 

 of the aorta. It was he who also first pointed out the dependence 

 of hemiplegia upon effusion in the opposite side of the brain. In 

 normal anatomy he rendered great service by his accurate description 

 of the muscles and other parts of the ear before scarcely known ; and 

 by his account of the muscles of the pharynx and soft palate, and of 

 the aorta. Among his errors must be mentioned his notion that the 

 attachment of the muscles of the eye round the optic nerve forms a 

 ring capable of compressing and moderating the action of that nerve, 

 and his account of a duct which he supposed to pass from the renal 

 capsule to the ovary or testis. 



In 1697 Valsalva was made professor of anatomy in the University 

 of Bologna, and in 1705 surgeon to the Hospital of Incurables. He 

 was three times president of the Bologna Institute ; he was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and received honours of 

 various kinds from the states and from the learned societies of Italy. 

 He died at Bologna in 1723, leaving to its public institutions a large 

 philosophical and medical library, and the museums of anatomy and 

 surgical instruments which he had formed. His statue was placed in 

 the hall of the Institute by order of the senate, and his great pupil, 

 Morgagni, wrote his life. 



Valsalva's published works are few and small, though full of value. 

 They are, 1. 'De Aure humana Tractatus,' Bologna, 1704, 4to., which 

 was several times afterwards published at Utrecht and other places, 

 and reprinted in Morgagni's ' Epistolse ; ' 2. ' Dissertationes Tres 

 Anatomicse Posthumse,' Venice, 1740, 4to., read at the Bologna 

 Institute in 1715-16-19, and edited by Morgagni. There is also 

 a letter by Valsalva in Larber's edition of Palfyu's ' Surgical 

 Anatomy.' 



(Morgagni, Life, prefixed to his edition of Valsalva's works.) 



VAN ACHEN, HANS, one of the most distinguished German 

 painters of the sixteenth century, was born at Cologne in 1552. His 

 name is written in various ways, as Ab Ach, Dach, Dae, Van Aken, 

 and otherwise ; but Van Acben is the correct form : a picture in the 

 gallery of Schleissheim, near Munich, is marked 'HANS V. ACH. FE. 

 1598.' His family name is not known ; he was called Achen, after 

 the town of Achen or Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), the birth-place of his 

 father. Van Achen was first instructed by a painter called Jerrigh by 

 Van Mander, with whom he remained about six years. He studied 

 also the works of Spranger, whose style of design he imitated, and 

 although not so mannered as that master, he never forsook his style 

 of design in after-life. Shortly after he left his first master he went 

 to Venice to acquire the Venetian style of colouring, which he learnt 

 of Gaspard Rems, a Fleming, who at that period was one of the most 

 distinguished colourists at Venice. From Venice he went to Florence 

 and Home. In Rome he acquired a great reputation by several 

 pictures which he painted there, some of which were engraved by 

 Raphael Sadeler, who was at Rome at the same time. A ' Nativity of 

 Christ,' painted for the church of the Jesuits at Rome, extended Van 

 Achen's reputation to Germany. He visited Venice a second time, 

 and whilst there received an invitation from Duke William of Bavaria 

 to go to Munich, whither he repaired ; and he received constant 

 employment there for some years, and was paid very highly for his 

 works. During his stay at Munich he was repeatedly invited by the 

 emperor Rudolph II. to go to Prague ; he however allowed four years 

 to elapse before he complied with the emperor's request. At Prague 

 he painted many pictures for the emperors Rudolph and Matthias, 

 and, excepting a short time spent at Munich and Augsburg, he passed 

 the remainder of his life there. Whilst at Augsburg he gained 

 the affections of the daughter of the celebrated musician Orlando 

 di Lasso, and was married to her. He died at Prague, in 1615, aged 

 sixty-three. 



Van Achen had the reputation of being the richest painter of his 

 time. He was a bold and a rapid painter, but was a great mannerist : 

 he neglected both the study of nature and of the antique, and was 

 one of the leading propagators of that gross and heavy style which 

 prevailed in Germany at the beginning of the 1 7th century. It con- 

 sisted of an attempted union of the Florentine and Venetian styles, 

 and combined a florid colouring with exaggerated and mannered 

 forms. This style prevailed generally in Germany, until Rubens and 

 Rembrandt and their imitators spread a very different taste. Achen's 

 principal works are at Munich : the best are the Calling of St. Peter, 

 for St. Michael's Church : a ' St. Sebastian,' for Stanislaus Chapel, 

 engraved by J. Miiller ; ' Christ upon the Cross,' with John and Mary, 

 for the Chapel of the Cross, engraved by E. Sadeler ; and the ' Dis- 

 covery of the Cross by St. Helena,' for the chapel of the elector. 

 There are several of his works also in the Gallery of Vienna : among 

 them, portraits of Rudolph II, and his brother Ernest when young, 



both in armour. He painted many portraits: two of his best are 

 considered, the portrait of Rudolph II., engraved by It. Sadeler j 

 and that of Spranger the painter, engraved by J. Muller. Other 

 celebrated works by Achen are an 'Ecce Homo,' engraved by G. 

 Andre" ; ' Mary Magdalen in the Wilderness,' by L. Kilian ; and 'Justice 

 and Truth,' by G. A. Wolfgang the elder. Many other eminent 

 engravers have executed plates after this master. 



VANBRUGH, SIR JOHN, was of foreign lineage. His grandfather, 

 a citizen of Ghent, came over to England at the time of Alva's per- 

 secution of the Protestants in the Netherlands, and died in 1646, 

 leaving a handsome fortune to his son Giles, who seems to have been 

 at first engaged in business, but afterwards it is said held the place of 

 comptroller of the treasury chamber. Giles lived till 1089, at Chester, 

 and had a family of eight sons by his wife Elizabeth, youngest 

 daughter and coheir of Sir Dudley Carleton, who died in 1711. John 

 was born in 1666, but whether in London or Chester is uncertain, and 

 beyond that very little is known with certainty respecting him till he 

 began to write for the stage. We have no account of his early studies, 

 and it appears rather doubtful if he was regularly educated to the pro- 

 fession of architecture ; certainly no claim has been put forth in 

 behalf of any one for the honour of having been the instructor of such 

 a pupil. According to some anecdotes told of him, he studied archi- 

 tecture in France, where, being detected in making drawings of some 

 fortifications, he was imprisoned in the Bastile. That he was sent by 

 his father to that country at the age of nineteen does not admit of 

 much doubt ; yet whether it was for the purpose of completing or 

 commencing his studies in architecture is not very clear. If this was 

 the case, he did not attend to them very diligently, for in the course 

 of his stay there he entered the military service, though he did not 

 continue in it very long. It is certainly to be regretted that no more 

 satisfactory account has come down to us, for it would be instructive 

 to learn bow an architect of such a peculiar taste formed a style which 

 may be called his own. Still we think it may be traced to French 

 models to the palaces and chateaux of that country, of which lofty 

 pavilions, turrets, and chimneys were characteristic features, and pro- 

 duced that variety of outline which is considered the great merit of 

 Vanbrugh's designs. From the same source he seems to have derived 

 his predilection for arched windows and horizontal rustics, even to the 

 exclusion of variety in that respect. In fact he seems to have had 

 little knowledge of, or else little relish for, the works of the Italian 

 school, since, with all his love for massiveness and boldness, he never 

 availed himself of its more ornate and diversified modes of rusticated 

 work. 



Whatevever may have been his progress up to that period, we may 

 suppose him to have acquired some reputation for architectural skill 

 previous to 1695, for he was then appointed one of the commissioners 

 for completing the palace at Greenwich when it was about to be 

 converted into an hospital. About the same time he began to dis- 

 tinguish himself in his other and widely different career of a dramatic 

 writer ; and of his masterly talent for comedy his plays of the ' Pro- 

 voked Wife,' the ' Relapse,' and the ' Confederacy ' (the last founded 

 upon Dancour's ' Bourgeoises a la Mode '), afford sufficient proof, and 

 also of the levity of his disposition, if not of the licentiousness of his 

 morals. Considered merely as literary productions they are entitled to 

 great admiration ; yet so libertine are they, not merely in language, but 

 in plot, in sentiment, and in general tendency, that they are calculated 

 to corrupt as well as to please. They are now banished not only from 

 the stage, but almost from the closet ; and he who might have been 

 the Moliere of our dramatic literature or at any rate a standard 

 classic in it is now consigned to comparative oblivion. Fortunately 

 he had an opportunity of displaying his other talent, and that upon a 

 large scale. In 1702 he was employed by Charles, the third earl of 

 Carlisle, to erect a mansion for him in Yorkshire, on the site of the 

 ancient castle of Hinderskelf ; and he produced the palace of Castle 

 Howard, an extensive and noble pile (660 feet in length), though, like 

 all his other works of that class, more satisfactory in its general 

 character than when examined in detail. His patron Carlisle, who 

 was then earl marshal of England, signified his approbation by be- 

 stowing on him the honourable and not unprofitable appointment of 

 Clarencieux king-at-arms, in 1703. His work of Castle Howard also 

 recommended him as architect to many noble and wealthy employers, 

 for whom he erected stately mansions in various parts of the kingdom. 

 Among them may be mentioned Eastbury in Dorsetshire, built for 

 Bubb Doddington, but afterwards pulled down by Earl Temple (a 

 circumstance not greatly to be regretted, if we may judge of it from, 

 the designs in the ' Vitruvius Britaunicus ') ; King's Weston, near 

 Bristol, which is greatly admired for the effect produced by its chim- 

 neys; Duncomba Hall, Yorkshire; Grimsthorpe, Yorkshire, considered 

 one of his most important works; Seaton Delaval, Northumberland; 

 and Oulton Hall, Cheshire. He seems to have been employed ex- 

 clusively on works of this class, country-seats and mansions : for no 

 public buildings are attributed to him except one, which was a specu- 

 lation of his own, connected with his dramatic pursuits, a theatre in 

 the Haymarket, which afterwards became the original Opera-house, on 

 the site of the present building. In this scheme he was assisted by 

 many persons of quality, and had Congreve for his dramatic coadjutor 

 and Betterton for manager, by whom the house was opened in 1706. 

 This ' confederacy ' of comic talent was not however so successful aa 



