270 



VAN HELMONT. 



VANMANDER, CAREL. 



250 



VAN HELMONT. [HELMONT, VAN.] 



VAN HOECK, JAN, a distinguished Flemish painter, was born at 

 Antwerp about 1600. He, first studied for one of the learned pro- 

 fessions, but became the pupil of Rubens, and studied afterwards 

 Borne time in Rome. While in Italy he was invited by the emperor 

 Ferdinand II. to his court, and was much employed by him. He 

 eventually returned to his own country, where he died, according to 

 IJoubraken, in 1650. 



Vau Hoeck was admirable in history and portrait, and excelled 

 both in light and shade and colour ; his figures also are better drawn 

 than is the case with those of the pupils of Rubens and the Flemish 

 flchool generally. The ' Christ on the Cross ' in the church of Saint 

 Sauveur, or the cathedral, at Bruges, is one of the finest pictures in 

 Belgium. The Christ, which is of the size of life, has extraordinary 

 effect and reality, and is certainly superior to the celebrated Christ of 

 the church of St. Michael at Ghent, by Vandyck, and it is more real 

 and impressive than any of those of Rubens : beneath the cross are 

 the Virgin and other taints. There is a print of it by the younger 

 Cornelius Galle ; this engraver however is not very accurate in his 

 drawing. Independent of the Christ, the composition of the picture 

 is meagre and formal, and wants dramatic truth. 



VAN TNI, LUCI'LIO, was born at Taurosano, in the province of 

 Otranto, in 1585. He studied at Naples, Rome, and Padua, and applied 

 himself especially to metaphysics. He afterwards travelled about 

 Germany, France, and England. He was of a sceptical turn of mind, 

 but seems to have had a leaning towards astrology. Cardano and 

 Pom pon azzi were his favourite authors. He was fond of religious 

 polemics, a perilous vocation in that age. He says himself that he 

 held disputations in England in favour of the Roman Catholic faith, 

 and was imprisoned forty-nine days for it. Returning to Italy, he 

 taught philosophy at Genoa ; but perceiving that his orthodoxy was 

 suspected, he went to France, where he published a curious work, the 

 title of which alone gives some insight into the state of his mind - 

 ' Amphitheatrum seternse Providentiso Divino-magicum, Christiano-phy- 

 sicum, uec non Astrologo-catholicum, adversus veteres Philosophies, 

 Atheos, Epicureos, Peripateticos, et Stoicos,' Lyon, 1615. His next 

 work was 'De admirandis Naturae, Reginre Deseque mortalium, Arca- 

 nis,' Paris, 1616. This work raised a storm against the author, 

 because it was considered aa savouring of pantheism. The Sorbonne 

 condemned the book to the flames. In the mean time Vanini was 

 offering his services to the Papal nuncio Ubaldini at Paris, to write a 

 defence of the Council of Trent. In 1617 he left Paris for Toulouse, 

 where some time after be was arrested by order of the parliament of 

 that city; and in February 1619 he was condemned to be burnt as a 

 professed atheist. The president of the parliament, De Grammont, 

 wrote an account of his condemnation and execution, which is given 

 by Brucker, in his ' History of Philosophy,' and by Niceron, in his 

 ' Me"moires des Hommes Illustres,' from which it appears that Vaniui 

 died making a profession of atheism. But several Roman Catholic 

 writers, among others Tommaso Barbieri, in his 'Notizie del Mate- 

 matici e Filosofi Napolitani,' have defended Vanini against the charge 

 of atheism. 



VANLOO, JEAN BAPTISTE, originally of a noble family of 

 Ecluse in Flanders, which had long numbered painters among its 

 members, was born at Aix in Provence, in 1684. His grandfather 

 Jacques was a clever portrait painter, and his father Louis Vanloo 

 excelled in design and was a good fresco painter : he was educated iu 

 Paris in the French Academy, but settled at Aix in Provence iu 1683. 

 His two sons, Jean Baptiste and Charles Andre", both became eminent 

 painters. 



Jean Baptiste was instructed by his father, who taught him. to draw 

 when he was still a child : he set him to copy pictures by the old 

 masters, and young Vanloo is said to have made a good copy when 

 he was only eight years of age. Jean Baptiste painted portraits and 

 history, and 6rst practised at Nice and Toulon, where he married the 

 daughter of an advocate. He was obliged to leave Toulon in 1707, 

 when it was besieged by Victor, duke of Savoy, afterwards called 

 king of Sardinia, and he returned to Aix, where he remained five 

 years, during which time he painted many portraits and several 

 religious pieces. In 1712 he returned to Nice, and his father dying 

 shortly afterwards he finished the works which his father had left 

 incomplete. He then went to Genoa and to Turin, where he was 

 noticed by the duke of Savoy, whose family he painted as well as a 

 portrait of the duke himself. He became acquainted at Turin also 

 with the duke's son-in-law the Prince of Carignano, who took Vanloo 

 into his service and seut him to Rome, where he became the scholar 

 of Benedetto LutL In 1719 Vanloo was lodged by his patron the 

 Prince of Carignauo in his hotel at Paris. On his return from Rome, 

 Vanloo visited Turin and painted some pictures for the king oi 

 Sardinia, who would have retained him in his service but for his 

 engagement with the Prince of Carignano. He soon acquired a greal 

 reputation iu Paris, and was in great favour with the regent, the duke 

 of Orleans, for whom he repaired in distemper the five cartoons by 

 Julio Romano of the Loves of Jupiter, and also the frescoes of Niccolo 

 Abati from the designs of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau. In the lattei 

 he wa= assisted by his brother Charles Andre". These works and the 

 gallery containing them were destroyed in 1738 to make room for a 

 new building. 



In portrait Vanloo had few rivals in Paris. He painted Louis XV. 

 and the queen of France ; also the king Stanislaus Leczinski and his 

 [ueen. Yet although he was so much occupied with portraits, he 

 applied himself constantly to historical pieces, some of which gained 

 great credit. ID 1731 he was made a member of the Academy, 

 and in 1735 he was appointed professor. He painted a picture of Diana 

 and Endymion for his reception into the Academy. Notwithstanding 

 Vanloo' t> great success, a large family and au unsuccessful speculation, 

 he lost 40,000 francs in the Mississippi scheme) rendered constant 

 xertion necessary. He came, in 1738, with two of bia sons to 

 London, with a view of trying his fortune in this country, and he met 

 with great success. His first works in London were portraits of 

 Volley Gibber and Owen Mac Swinney, " whose long silver-grey hairs," 

 says Walpole, " were extremely picturesque, and contributed to give 

 ,he new painter reputation." He continues " Vanloo soon bore 

 away the chief business of London from every other painter. His 

 ikenesses were very strong, but not favourable, and his heads coloured 

 with force. He executed very little of the rest of his pictures, the 

 draperies of which were supplied by Van Aken and Vanloo'a own 

 disciples Eccardt and Root. However Vanloo certainly introduced a 

 letter style ; his pictures were thoroughly finished, natural, and no 

 >art neglected. He was laborious, and demanded five sittings from 

 sach person. But he soon left the palm to be again contended for by 

 iis rivals. He laboured under a complication of distempers, and being 

 advised to try the air of his own country, Provence, he retired thither 

 in October 1742, and died there in April 1746." He left about 90,000 

 'rancs to his family. 



Vanloo had an extraordinary facility of execution ; he painted three 

 well-finished heads in a single day. His colouring was rich and his 

 drawing was correct. He had five sons, two of whom became dis- 

 tinguished painters, Louis Michel, painter to Philip V., king of 

 Spain ; and Charles Amade'e Philippe, painter to Frederic the Great 

 of, Prussia. 



Vanloo's historical pieces are numerous : ' Christ entering into Jeru- 

 salem,' at St. Martin des Champs; and 'St. Peter delivered from Prison,' 

 at St. Germain des Pro's, at Paris, are among his best works. 



VANLOO, CHARLES ANDRE, knight of the Order of St. Michael 

 and director of the French Academy of Painting at Paris, the younger 

 brother of Jean Baptiste Vauloo, was born at Nice in 1705. He 

 learned painting and sculpture when a boy at Rome; he was instructed 

 in painting by his brother and by Benedetto Luti, and in sculpture by 

 Le Gros. His brother tooij him with him to Paris in 1719, and he 

 commenced his career as a decorative painter in the great Opera- 

 house, but he soon forsook this branch for portrait painting. In 1723, 

 when only eighteen, he gained the first medal for drawing at the 

 Academy, and in 1724 the first prize for painting. In 1727 he went 

 again to Rome, and gained one of the prizes of the Academy of St. 

 Luke : he also distinguished himself by a picture of the 'Apotheosis 

 of St. Isidore,' and two or three other works, which attracted the 

 notice of the Cardinal de Polignac, then French minister at the 

 court of Rome, who procured him a pension 'from the French 

 king; and in 1729 he was honoured with the title of Cavaliere by 

 the pope. 



On his return to Paris he delayed some time at Turin, where he 

 painted eleven pictures from Tasso's ' Jerusalem Delivered,' for the 

 king of Sardinia ; and he married there the celebrated singer Christine 

 Sommis, with whom he arrived at Paris in 1734. Dandre Bardon, 

 who wrote a Life of Charles Vanloo, says that Madam Vanloo was 

 the first singer who excited the admiration of the French for Italian 

 music. In 1735 Vauloo was admitted a member of the Academy ; he 

 painted as his reception picture Marsyas flayed by Apollo, which is 

 one of his best works. Frederic the Great of Prussia wished him to 

 enter into his service, and offered him a pension of 3000 dollars (450/.) 

 and distinct payment for his works; Vanloo however declined, but 

 recommended his nephew Charles Amadee Philippe to Frederic, who 

 was appointed the king's painter. Vanloo himself painted for the king 

 a picture of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. 



In 1751 Vanloo was presented by Louis XV. with the Order of St. 

 Michael ; and in the same year was made director of the Academy : 

 in 1762 he was appointed principal painter to the king. He died in 

 Paris in 1765. 



Charles Andre" Vanloo was considered by the admirers of the old 

 French school the last of the great historical painters of France. He 

 was an easy and a rapid draughtsman ; was true and vigorous in 

 colouring, and had a masterly execution : he was however rather 

 poor in invention. He was very fastidious, and he often destroyed 

 some of his best pieces. Ho was a man of singular temper; he went 

 every night to the theatres, but generally to the Italian comedy, yet 

 he always rose early. Diderot (' Essai sur la Peinture ') says that 

 Vanloo could neither read nor write. 



VANMANDER, CAREL, or CHARLES, a painter, poet, and bio- 

 grapher, born at Meulebeke near Cotirtray, in 1548, was descended of 

 an old noble family of West Flanders. Members of his family had 

 held high offices in church and state as early as the thirteenth 

 century : his father was a landowner and farmed likewise eome 

 government estates. Vanmander showed great ability for both poetry 

 and painting when very young, and he was placed at an early age with 

 Lucas de Heere at Ghent, likewise a poet and painter. He studied 



