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VANNI, CAVALIERE FRANCESCO. 



VAN OS, PIETER GERARD. 



painting afterwards with Peter Vlerick at Courtray ; and in 1569 he 

 returned home. He spent five years in his native place, devoting 

 much of his time to poetry and dramatic representations, and he 

 superintended a theatre at home, of which he was poet, painter, and 

 manager, and which he made extremely popular. He painted also 

 some altar-pieces and a few other pictures. In 1574 he set out for 

 Rome. In Rome Vanmander became acquainted with Spranger, and 

 was led away from the correct taste which he might otherwise have 

 acquired there, by the mannerism of that master and of the period. 

 He was however very industrious and acquired great distinction. He 

 left Rome in 1577 for his own country, and on his way visited Basel 

 and Vienna. At Basel he painted some frescoes in the cemetery : at 

 Vienna he again met with Spranger, and assisted him in some of his 

 works. Vanmander, after his return home, lived some years in peace, 

 dividing his time between poetry and painting ; but the civil wars 

 soon rendered it necessary for him to leave his native place. His 

 father's house was plundered by some Walloons, and he himself only 

 escaped hanging by the accidental, arrival on the spot of an Italian 

 with whom he had been acquainted in Rome, who released him. He 

 first went to Courtray, but upon the plague breaking out in that 

 place he removed to Bruges; and shortly afterwards, in 1583, he 

 went with his wife and two children to Haarlem, where he remained 

 twenty years, respected by all who knew him. At Haarlem Van- 

 mander established an academy, acd had many scholars; here also 

 he accomplished many literary labours. He wrote many songs ; 

 translated the 'Iliad;' the 'Bucolics' and 'Georgics'of Virgil; and 

 Ovid's ' Metamorphoses , ' and compiled also the greater part of his 

 ' Lives of the Painters,' which he finished, in 1604, at Sevenbergen, 

 a castle between Alkmaar and Haarlem. In the same year he removed 

 to Amsterdam, where he died in 1606, aged fifty-eight, leaving a wife 

 and seven children. Three hundred of his friends and scholars 

 followed his body to the grave. 



The world is chiefly indebted to Vanmander for his ' Lives of the 

 Painters' (' Het Schilder Boek'), Haarlem, 1604, 4to., which contains 

 notices of the painters of antiquity, and of the most celebrated 

 Italian, German, Dutch, and Flemish painters. A modernised edition 

 of the Dutch, Flemish, and German painters, with many portraits, 

 and some additions, was published at Amsterdam in 1764, under the 

 title ' Het Leven der Doorluchtige Nederlandsche en eenige Hoog- 

 duitsche Schilders' (''Lives of the Illustrious Motherland and some 

 German Painters'). Vanmander painted a considerable number of 

 pictures on religious subjects, many of which have been engraved. 

 He was a good landscape painter, both in fresco and in oil : he 

 executed at Home some large landscapes in fresco, which gained him 

 great credit. His son, Charles Vanmander, bora at Delft in 1580, 

 also distinguished himself as an historical and portrait painter. He 

 was painter to Christian IV., king of Denmark, excelled in portrait 

 painting, had a free touch, and. coloured well. He was still living 

 in 1665. 



(Vanmander, Het Leven der Schilders, cd. 1764; Schopenhauer, 

 Johann Van Eijck und seine Nachfolger; Fiorillo, Geschichte der Zeich- 

 nenden Kunste, &c. ; Fiissli, Allgemeines Kunstler Lexicon.) 



VANNI, CAVALIERE FRANCESCO, one of the most celebrated 

 Italian painters of the latter half of the 16th century, was borii at 

 Siena, in 1565, of a family long distinguished in the Sienese annals of 

 painting. He was first instructed by his father, and after his death, 

 for a short time, by his step-father Archanglo Salimbeni : he is then 

 said to have studied with Bartolomeo Passarotti at Bologna, which 

 Lanzi questions; and in his sixteenth year he went to Rome and 

 finished his studies with Giovanni de' Vecchi. He ultimately adopted 

 the style of Baroccio, and became the most distinguished of all that 

 painter's imitators ; though he copied also some of the works of Cor- 

 reggio and Parmegiano at Parma, and it was perhaps more owing to 

 his admiration for the works and style of Correggio that he painted in 

 the manner of Baroccio, than from any direct imitation of the latter. 

 Vanni obtained such reputation at Siena by some of the altar-pieces 

 which he executed for its churches, that he waa invited by Clement 

 VIII. to Rome, and commissioned by that pontiff to paint a picture 

 for one of the altars of St. Peter's. He painted Simon Magus rebuked 

 by Peter, and gave such satisfaction that he was created cavaliere of 

 the order of Christ. This picture is still in good preservation, is 

 executed completely in the style of Baroccio, and is one of Vanni's 

 best works. Other celebrated works by him in Rome are in Santa 

 Cecilia in Trastevere, the Flagellation of Christ, and the Death of St. 

 Cecilia; and a Dead Christ in Santa Maria delta Vallicella. He 

 painted also some celebrated works in Siena, at Pisa, and at Pistoia. 

 His picture of St. Raimond walking on the Sea, at San Domenico, is 

 considered the best painting at Siena. He was also a skilful architect. 

 He died at Siena in 1609, aged only forty-four, according to Baldi- 

 nucci, or forty-six, according to D'Argenville, who gives 1563 as the 

 date of his birth. 



Vanni's style was so much like that of Baroccio, that even good 

 judges have been misled as to the authorship of some of Vanni's 

 pictures, supposing them to be works of Baroccio. With however the 

 single exception of colouring, Vanni was upon the whole inferior to 

 Baroccio ; and in colouring he was sometimes hard. His drawing in 

 general was excellent, but has less fulness than Baroccio's ; he had 

 also less vigour of conception and less spirit of execution. 



Vanni formed a numerous school, of which his two eons Michel- 

 angelo and Raffaelle Vanni were distinguished scholars. Both attained 

 the rank of cavaliere ; but according to Lanzi, the younger was the 

 more deserving of it. RafFaelle was born in 1596. He painted many 

 pictures of merit in Rome j~ where, in 1655, he was elected a member 

 of the Academy of St. Luke. Be painted in the style of Pietro da 

 Cortona. 



Many of the works of Francesco Vanni have been engraved by some 

 of the most eminent engravers; he himself also etched a few plates. 

 His portrait is in the painters' portrait gallery at Florence. 



VANNI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, a Florentine painter, or accord- 

 ing to others, a native of Pisa, was born in 1599. He was the scholar, 

 first, of Jacopo da Empoli, and then of Christofano Allori, in whoso 

 style he painted, especially in colouring. He excelled in imitating, 

 and made some excellent copies after Titian, Correggio, and Paul 

 Veronese ; he etched some plates after the two la^t, in a spirited 

 though careless manner : The Marriage at Cana, after Paul Veronese, 

 dated 1637, is his best production in this line. The painting of San 

 Lorenzo, in the church of San Simone at Florence, is considered his 

 best picture ; but it is not a work of the highest order. He died 

 in 1660. 



VAN OOST, JACOB, the Elder, a celebrated Flemish historical 

 painter, was born at Bruges, in 1600, of a good family. He distin- 

 guished himself when very young, and even before his twenty-first year 

 was accounted one of the best painters of Bruges. He copied some of 

 the pictures of R ibens with such fidelity, both of colouring and 

 execution, that the copies have passed, and still pass, for originals by 

 that master. After painting some time at Bruges, he went to Italy, 

 and paid great attention to the works of Annibal Carracci at Rome, 

 and endeavoured to appropriate his style of composition and design, 

 which he did to a great degree. He returned in 1630 to Bruges with 

 the reputation of a great painter, and was solicited for works from all 

 quarters. In 1633 he was elected dean of the corporation of painters 

 of Bruges. His pictures are very numerous, though on a large scale : 

 his design and chiaroscuro were good, and his colouring rich and 

 fresh in the carnations; but his draperies are sometimes raw and 

 careless. Some of his pictures are executed with such boldness, that 

 they are scarcely intelligible except at a considerable distance, when 

 their effect is masterly; others, on the contrary, are highly finished 

 and the colours are well blended. His pictures have few figures, are 

 well composed, and are unencumbered with unnecessary accessories : 

 the landscape of his backgrounds was painted by other masters ; the 

 architecture, in which he excelled, by himself. There are many of 

 his works at Bruges ; in the Hopital de St. Jean there are several, 

 some of which are among his best pieces. In one.of the halls of justice 

 at Bruges there is a picture of the condemnation of a criminal, which 

 is considered Van Oost's masterpiece. He was equally excellent as a 

 portrait painter. He died in 1691. 



VAN OOST, JACOB, the Younger, son of the elder Van Oost, was 

 born at Bruges in 1637. He was first instructed by his father, then 

 studied two years in Paris, and afterwards spent some time in Rome. 

 After his return to Bruges he for a short time assisted his father ; but 

 having determined to establish himself at Paris, he set out for that 

 capital in 1673. He however delayed upon his road at Lille to paint 

 a few portraits, which brought him so many sitters and other engage- 

 ments, that he fixed himself in that place, and remained there forty 

 years, until after the death of his wife. He returned to his native place 

 in 1713, the year of his death, and the seventy -sixth of his age. The 

 younger Van Oost was also an able painter in history and in portrait, 

 but his historical pieces are not numerous. His style was like that of 

 his father, but he painted with a better impasto, and his draperies are 

 very superior. His figures are correct and expressive. 



VAN OS, PIETER GERARD, a distinguished animal-painter, was the 

 son of Jan Van Os, a clever flower-painter, who was horn in 1774, and 

 died at the Hague in 1808. He was also a marine painter and a poet. 



Pieter Van Os was born at the Hague in 1776, and was taught 

 painting by his father. He selected Paul Potter as his model, and 

 copied his pictures assiduously, and some of the works of Charles 

 Dujardin. He made such an excellent copy of the celebrated young 

 bull by Potter, in the gallery of the Hague, that William, V., prince of 

 Orange, purchased it and a copy after Dujardin, and placed them in 

 his gallery. For a time, owing to the disturbed state of society 

 towards the end of the 18th century, which was very unfavourable to 

 the arts, Van Os was forced to give up his favourite pursuit of animal 

 painting, and to take to portrait painting in miniature and to teaching 

 drawing. After a few years however he again commenced painting 

 landscapes, with cattle, sheep, &c., by which he acquired a great 

 reputation. In 1813 and 1814 he served as a captain of volunteers, 

 and was present in some engagements, which induced him to try his 

 hand at military subjects, in which he was not unsuccessful. The 

 emperor Alexander purchased a picture of him in 1813, of the entrance 

 of the Cossaks into Utrecht, and placed it in his palace at St. Peters- 

 burg. He died at the Hague in 1839. 



The pictures of Van Os are numerous, and are sold at high prices : 

 many of them have been engraved. He himself also etched many 

 plates of cattle, &c. in a masterly manner from his own designs, and 

 from the pictures of eminent painters, Potter, Berghem, Ruisdael, and 

 others. 



