303 



VECCHI, GIOVANNI DE'. 



VEGA CARPIO, FRAY LOPE FELIX DE. 



304 



VECCHI, GIOVANNI DE', a distinguished Italian painter, born at 

 Borgo San Sepolcro, in 1536. He was the scholar of Raffaellina del 

 Colle, and painted in oil and in fresco. His works are very numerous 

 in the churches of Home and its vicinity : he made the cartoons for 

 the two great mosaics of the evangelists Luke and John in St. Peter's 

 on the Vatican. He died in 1614. His portrait is in the Academy of 

 St. Luke at Rome. 



VE'CCHIA, PIE'TRO, a distinguished painter of the Venetian 

 school, was born at Venice in 1605. He was the scholar of Alessandro 

 Varotari, but painted in a different style. His real name appears to 

 have been Mattoni, and he acquired the name of Vecchia from his 

 skill in imitating and restoring old pictures. Vecchia painted many 

 pictures so exactly in the style of Giorgone, that it is almost impossible 

 to decide between the works of these painters : he painted also some 

 pictures in the styles of Pordenone and Titian. He made the designs 

 of many of the mosaics in the church of San Marco at Venice, but his 

 easel pictures were generally of inferior subjects, and his talent was 

 more for the ludicrous than the serious. Some of his efforts in illus- 

 tration of the Passion of Christ were signal failures as regards a proper 

 feeling for the subject. His touch was bold, his drawing and colouring 

 excellent, and some of his effects of light and shade strikingly powerful 

 and masterly. He died at Venice in 1678. 



VECELLIO TIZIANO. [TITIAN.] 



VECELLIO, FRANCESCO, the brother of Titian, was born at 

 Cadore in 1483 ; commenced life as a painter, and imitated the style 

 of his brother. He afterwards took to a military life, returned again 

 to painting, and then again forsook it in 1531 for the life of a mer- 

 chant, as is reported, by the advice of Titian, who is said to have been 

 jealous of him : he was a painter of great ability. There are several 

 excellent pictures by him in the Venetian state. He died in 1560. 



VECELLIO, ORA'ZIO, the son of Titian, was born at Venice in 

 1515. He was an excellent portrait-painter, accompanied his father to 

 Rome, and assisted him in most of his works. Many of Orazio's por- 

 traits are said now to be attributed to his father. He died at the same 

 time as his father, in 1576, likewise of the plague. He is said to have 

 wasted much money in the study of alchemy. 



Titian's property was inherited by his eldest son, POMPONIO VECELLIO, 

 a priest, who, according to report, soon squandered it away. Besides 

 these two sons Titian had a daughter named Cornelia. 



VECELLIO, MARCO, called MARCO DI TIZIANO, was the nephew 

 of Titian, and was born at Venice in 1545. He was a great favourite 

 with Titian, painted in a similar style, and executed many good works. 

 He died in 1611. 



VEGA CARPIO, FRAY LOPE FELIX DE, was born at Madrid 

 on the 25th of November 1562. His father, as he informs us in his 

 ' Laurel de Apolo,' p. 45, was also a poet, to which circumstance may 

 perhaps be ascribed Lope's early taste for poetry. According to 

 Montalvan ('Fama Posthuma,' p. 15), before Lope had attained the 

 age of five he could read Spanish and Latin ; and before his hand was 

 strong enough to guide the pen he recited verses of his own composi- 

 tion, which he had the address and good fortune to barter for prints 

 and toys with his playfellows. At the age of twelve he had, by his 

 own account, not only written short poems, but composed dramas in 

 four acts ; and during the intervals which his studies at school 

 afforded him, he was always rhyming. Having lost his father when 

 he was about thirteen, he was soon after impelled by so strong a 

 desire of seeing the world, that he resolved to escape from school. He 

 concerted his project with a schoolfellow, and they actually left 

 Madrid together, without the knowledge of their relations or their 

 masters. Being however detected in their flight, Lope and his school- 

 fellow were brought back to their relations. Upon his return to 

 Madrid, young Lope ingratiated himself with the Bishop of Avila by 

 several pastorals, and a comedy in three acts, called ' La Pastoral de 

 Jacinto,' which is justly considered as a prelude to the reform which 

 he meditated in the Spanish stage. It is moreover probable that 

 during this interval, between school and the university, which he was 

 enabled to enter through the liberality of his patron the bishop, he 

 composed several poems, which he retouched in after-life. After 

 spending four years at the University of Alcala", Lope became attached 

 to the Duke of Alva, at whose request he wrote his ' Arcadia,' a 

 mixture of prose and verse, romance and poetry, pastoral and heroic, 

 the design of which is avowedly taken from Sannazaro, though its 

 execution has been pronounced by Spanish critics to be far superior to 

 the model. The 'Arcadia,' though written perhaps as early as 1580, 

 was not published till 1598. Some time after Lope had executed the 

 command of his illustrious patron he left his service, and married a 

 lady of rank, Dona Isabel de Urbino. He continued to cultivate 

 poetry with increased enthusiasm, until being involved in a duel with a 

 gentleman of rank, he wounded his antagonist, and was obliged to 

 separate himself from his wife, whom he loved tenderly, and leave 

 Madrid. Lope fixed upon Valencia as the place of his retreat; but 

 some years after, having previously ascertained that he would not be 

 prosecuted, he returned to the capital, and was reunited to his family. 

 He did not however long enjoy this new-found happiness : his wife, 

 whose health had been for some time on the decline, died shortly 

 after his return. To fly from such painful recollections, Lope became 

 a soldier, and joined the ' invincible Armada.' The fate of that expe- 

 dition is well known; and Lope, in addition to the difficulties and 



dangers of the voyage, had the misfortune of seeing a beloved brother 

 expire in his arms. During this unfortunate voyage Lope composed 

 his ' Hermosura de Angelica,' a poem which professes to take up the 

 story of that princess where Ariosto left it, and which Marini, one of 

 his Italian admirers, has not hesitated to pronounce superior to the 

 ' Orlando.' On his return from the Armada, Lope quitted the career 

 of arms, and entered the service, first, of the Marquis of Malpica, and 

 afterwards of the Count of Leinos, with whom he remained until his 

 second marriage, to Dona Juana de Guardia, a lady of Madrid : he was 

 then twenty-eight years old. About eight years after this event, in 

 1598, on the occasion of the canonisation of St. Isidorus, a native of 

 Madrid, Lope entered the lists with the best poets of the day, and 

 surpassed them all in the number and merit of his performances. 

 Prizes had been assigned for every style of poetry, but no more than 

 one could be obtained by the same person. Lope succeeded in the 

 hymns ; but not contented with this, he produced besides, in an 

 incredibly short space of time, a poem of ten cantos, in short verse, 

 as well as several sonnets and romances, and two comedies, which he 

 published together under the feigned name of Tome' de Burguillos. 



This was perhaps the most fortunate period of Lope's life : he had, 

 by his own statement, written already no less than niue hundred 

 dramas for the stage, besides twelve volumes of other poetry; and 

 although the remuneration then given to authors was very moderate, 

 he wrote so much, and had so many presents conferred upon him by 

 men of rank, who were anxious to become his patrons, that he was 

 enabled to live in affluence. He had a son named Carlos, on whom he 

 doated, and who promised to be the heir of his talents. The period 

 of his domestic happiness did not last long : his son died ; his wife 

 soon followed her child to the tomb, and Lope was left with two 

 daughters. The spirit of the poet seems to have sunk under such 

 repeated losses ; and he resolved to soothe it by the exercise of 

 devotion. Accordingly, having become secretary to the Inquisition, 

 he shortly afterwards became priest, and in 1609 a sort of honorary 

 member of the brotherhood of St. Francis. Meanwhile the reputation 

 of Lope as an author was rising to that height which it afterwards 

 reached, and he worked as assiduously as ever. He seldom passed a 

 year without giving some poem to the press ; and scarcely a month, or 

 even a week, without producing some play upon the stage. In a very 

 short space of time, ' Los Triumphos de la FeY ' Las Fortunas de 

 Diana,' three novels in prose, ' Circe,' an heroic poem, and ' Philo- 

 mena,' a singular but tiresome allegory, were the fruits of his 

 prolific pen. 



Such was his reputation, that he himself began to distrust the 

 sincerity of the public, and wishing to ascertain whether the extra- 

 vagant applauses heaped upon him were the result of fashion or a 

 homage paid to his merit, he published a poem without his name. 

 But either the number of his productions had gradually formed the 

 public taste to his own standard of excellence, or his fertile genius 

 was so well adapted to the taste of the times, that his ' Soliloquies of 

 God,' though printed under a feigned name, secured him as many 

 admirers as his former productions. Emboldened probably by this 

 success, he dedicated his ' Corona Tragica,' a poem on Mary Queen of 

 Scots, to Pope Urban VIII., who wrote him a letter of acknowledg- 

 ment in his own hand, and conferred on him the degree of doctor of 

 theology. About the same time Cardinal Barberini, the pope's nuncio, 

 followed him with veneration in the streets; Philip III., himself a 

 poet, would stop to gaze at such a prodigy ; the people crowded round 

 him wherever he appeared; the learned and the studious of Europe 

 made pilgrimages from their country for the sole purpose of con- 

 versing with Lope. So associated was the idea of excellence with his 

 name, that it was used in common conversation to signify anything 

 perfect in its kind ; and a Lope diamond, a Lope day, or a Lope 

 woman, became fashionable and familiar modes of expression. Lope 

 had dangerous rivals in Gongora and Cervantes, with neither of 

 whom he seems to have lived on good terms. Indeed, if we arc to 

 judge from the many satirical allusions contained in his writings, 

 Gongora and Lope were sworn enemies to each other. As to Cer- 

 vantes, it is probable that the immense popularity which Lope de 

 Vega enjoyed, and the honours which he received from all parts of the 

 country, may have awakened a sentiment of jealousy in his breast ; 

 whilst Lope was living in prosperity and splendour, the author of 

 ' Don Quixote' was actually starving in the same street ; Lope con- 

 tinued to publish plays and poems, and to receive every reward that 

 adulation and generosity could bestow, till the year 1635, when his 

 health gradually declined, and he expired on Monday, the 26th of 

 August, in the seventy-third year of bis age. He was buried at the 

 convent of nuns in the Calle de Cantarranas, whence his remains have 

 lately been removed to the National Pantheon of Madrid. 



Notwithstanding his undisputed talent, Lope is better known for 

 the prodigious number than the quality of his writings. According to 

 a calculation made by one of bis panegyrists, twenty-one million three 

 hundred thousand of his lines were actually printed, and no less than 

 eighteen hundred plays of his composition acted upon the stage. 

 " Were we to give credit to such accounts," says Lord Holland, 

 "allowing him to begin his compositions at the age of thirteen, we 

 must believe that upon an average he wrote more than nine hundred 

 lines a day ; a fertility of imagination, and a celerity of pen, which, 

 when we consider the occupations of his life as a soldier, a secretary, 



