78G 



VARRO VASE. 



the resin. This is used only for paintings. When 

 resins are dissolved in alcohol, the varnish dries 

 very speedily, and is subject to crack ; but this fault 

 is corrected by adding a small quantity of turpen- 

 tine to the mixture, which renders it brighter, and 

 less brittle when dry. The coloured resins or gums, 

 Kuch as gamboge, dragon's blood, &c., are used to 

 colour varnishes. To give lustre to the varnish 

 after it is laid on, it is rubbed with pounded pumice- 

 stone and water, which being dried with a cloth, 

 the work is afterwards rubbed with an oiled rag and 

 tripoli. The surface is, last of all, cleaned with 

 soft linen cloths, cleared of all greasiness with pow- 

 der of starch, and rubbed bright with the palm of 

 the hand. 



The following receipt for a good spirit varnish is 

 given by Tingry : Take strong alcohol, thirty-two 

 parts ; pure mastich, four ; sandarach, three ; clear 

 Venice turpentine, three ; coarsely ground glass, 

 four. Reduce the mastich and the sandarach to 

 tine powder ; introduce them, with the glass and 

 spirit, into a matrass, which is to be placed in hot. 

 water for one or two hours, taking care to stir up 

 the materials from time to time with a glass spatula ; 

 then pour in the turpentine, and keep the vessel for 

 half an hour longer in the water. Next day decant 

 off the liquor, and filter it through cotton. It will 

 be perfectly limpid. This varnish is usually applied 

 to objects of the toilet, as work-boxes, card-cases, &c. 



Essence varnish, by the same ; Take mastich in 

 powder, twelve parts ; pure turpentine, one and a 

 half; camphor in bits, one half; crystal glass, 

 ground, five ; rectified oil of turpentine, thirty-six. 

 Put the masticb, camphor, glass and oil into a ma- 

 trass, and dissolve as above prescribed. This 

 varnish is applied to paintings. 



Fat varnish. Takecopal, sixteen parts ; linseed 

 or poppy oil, made drying with litharge, eight ; oil 

 of turpentine, sixteen. Melt the copal in a matrass, 

 by exposing it to a moderate heat ; pour then upon 

 it the boiling hot oil ; stir the mixture, and, when 

 the temperature has fallen to about 200 Fahr., add 

 the oil of turpentine heated. Strain the whole 

 immediately through linen cloth, and keep the var- 

 nish in a widemouthed bottle. It becomes very 

 clear in a little while, and is almost colourless when 

 well made. Copal varnish is applied on coaches, 

 also generally on polished iron, brass, copper and 

 wood. 



Varnish, among medallists, is the term used to 

 signify those hues which antique medals have ac- 

 quired by lying in the earth. The beauty which 

 nature alone is able to impart to medals, and which 

 art has never yet attained the power of counter- 

 feiting, enhances their value. The colours acquired 

 by certain metals, from having lain a long while in 

 the ground, are various, and some of them exqui- 

 sitely beautiful. The blue nearly rivals that of 

 the turquoise : others have an inimitable vermilion 

 colour ; others, again, a polished, shining brown. 

 But that most usually found is a delicate green, 

 which hangs to the finest strokes without effacing 

 them. No metal except brass is susceptible of this. 

 The green rust which gathers on silver always 

 spoils it, and must be removed with vinegar or le- 

 mon juice. Falsifiers of medals have a varnish 

 which they use on their counterfeits, to give them 

 the appearance of being antique ; but there are 

 means of discovering these deceptions. See Numis- 

 matics. 



VARRO, MARCUS TERENTIUS, one of the most 

 karned men and prolific writers of ancient Rome, 



born B. C. 116, served, in his youth, in the army, 

 and, at a later period, obtained the dignity of tri- 

 bune, with other public offices. Varro was the 

 intimate friend of Cicero, and was banished by An- 

 tony, but returned to Rome under Augustus, and 

 died there, at the age of eighty-nine years, with the 

 reputation of being the most learned Roman, or at 

 least the most learned critic, of his time. The 

 number of his writings, chiefly on language, history 

 and philosophy, is stated to have amounted to about 



500, of which only two have come down to us a 



treatise upon agriculture (De Re Rustica}, in three 

 books, which is contained in the collection Scrip- 

 tores Rei JRustica, and fragments of a treatise on 

 the Latin language (De Lingua Latina"), which 

 treats principally of etymology and analogy. Good 

 editions of the latter have appeared at Dort, in 

 1619 (2 vols.), and (by Sprengel) at Berlin, in 182(>. 

 The former has been translated into English by 

 Owen (1800). 



VARUS, QriNTiLius. See Arminius, 



VASA, GUSTAVUS. See Gustavus I. 



VASARI, GIORGIO, the first writer who gave a 

 complete history of all modern artists, and also 

 himself a practical artist, was born at Arezzo, iri 

 the grand duchy of Tuscany, in 1512, and studied 

 under Luca Signorelli, Michael Angelo Buonarotti, 

 and Andrea del Sarto. The cardinal Ippolito de' 

 Medici, pope Clement VII. and the dukes Alessandro 

 and Cosmo, successively engaged him in their ser- 

 vice, after which he determined not to enter again 

 into the service of any prince. He was, however, 

 employed by the succeeding dukes, by the popes, 

 and other eminent persons, as an architect and 

 painter, in both of which characters, particularly in 

 the former, he obtained great reputation, although 

 as a painter he was only a skilful imitator of 

 Michael Angelo. His principal paintings are a 

 Lord's Supper, in the cathedral of Arezzo, and 

 several works in the Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence, 

 and in the Vatican in Rome. He has himself given 

 us an account of his different works in Florence, 

 Arezzo, Pisa, Venice, Bologna, Rome, &c. His 

 Vite de' piu eccellenti Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti 

 (first printed in 1550, and often republished) is of 

 more interest to us. It is highly esteemed, both 

 on account of the facts which it contains, and for 

 the scattered remarks in regard to the progress of 

 the arts. It, however, has fallen into many errors 

 respecting the earlier masters a circumstance ow- 

 ing to the imperfection of existing accounts ; and it 

 is also guilty of partiality towards the Tuscan 

 artists. We have also some other productions from 

 the pen of Vasari, who died in 1574. 



VASCO DA GAMA. See Gama. 



VASE (was, Latin). The earliest vases and urns 



