VELOCIPEDE 



6046 



VENATION 



Feeling the need of further study, especially 

 a better acquaintance with the Italian ma.-' 

 Velasquez succeeded in 1629 in winning tin- 

 king's consent to a journey to Italy. In Ven- 

 ice, Rome and Naples he studied the works 

 of great masters to good purpose, and returned 

 to Spain in 1631 with a deeper knowledge of 

 his art and with ripened powers. The chief 

 events of his later career were a second visit to 

 Italy and his appointment as marshal of the 

 royal palace in Madrid. In 1659. the year be- 

 fore his death, he received the highest honor 

 the king could confer on a Spanish nobleman 

 the cross of Santiago. It is said that the 

 king made known this honor by painting a red 

 cross on the breast of a figure of the artist. 



Velasquez was a supreme naturalist. He did 

 not paint what his imagination conceived for 

 him, but pictured exactly what he saw, and he 

 combined this power of realism with a mastery 

 of technique. He was a master of light and 

 shadow, of coloring and of composition a true 

 "painter's painter." His rich powers are best 

 revealed in the magnificent collection of his 

 paintings in the gallery of the Prado, Madrid. 

 Among the characteristic works in this collec- 

 tion are the Forge of Vulcan; The Stag Hunt, 

 showing his skill in painting dogs; the Surren- 

 <li r of Breda, his most celebrated historical 

 painting, and a Crucifixion. The National Gal- 

 lery of London and other European galleries 

 contain examples of his work, and he is also 

 represented in the Metropolitan Museum in 

 New York, which possesses a Christ and the 

 Pilgrims of Emmaus, and portraits of Philip IV 

 and the Infanta Maria Theresa. Various other 

 canvases may be seen in private American col- 

 lections. R.D.M. 



Consult Hinds' Days with Velasquez; Stokes' 

 Velazquez and His Works. 



VELOCIPEDE, velahs'ipeed. See BICYCLE. 



VELOCITY, ve lahs'i ti, a term used in phys- 

 ics to express the rate at which bodies change 

 position in space. Kinetic energy (that is, en- 

 ergy in actual operation) is measured by mass 

 and velocity, and when the mass of a moving 

 body is multiplied by its velocity, or speed, 

 the result is its momentum. Velocity is ex- 

 pressed as so many miles per hour, so many 

 feet per second, etc. It is said to be uniform 

 when the spaces traversed in given units of 

 time are equal, and variable when these spaces 

 are unequal; it is accelerated when, during 

 each portion of time, it passes through a 

 greater space than during the preceding equal 

 portion, as in a falling body; it is retarded 



when a smaller space is traversed in each suc- 

 LVe unit of time, as in a body rising into 

 the air. See FALLING BODIF.S; KNKRGY. 



VEL'VET, a fabric woven of silk, covered 

 with a close, fine and soft nap on one side, the 

 other side being a strong, close tissue without 

 nap. The nap is formed by part of the threads 

 of the warp which the workman puts over w 

 on the surface ; a* knife is passed along a groove 

 in each of the wires, which are then withdrawn. 

 A kind of velvet called velveteen is made in a 

 similar manner, from a mixture of silk and cot- 

 ton. Plush is made in the same way. 



Florence and Genoa were long noted for the 

 beauty of the velvet they produced, but the 

 modern center of the velvet industry is at 

 Lyons, France. Many choice examples of an- 

 cient velvet are preserved in collections. There 

 has been within recent years a great revival of 

 the popularity of velvet for women's costumes, 

 and it is now made in a wide variety of shades 

 and colors, ranging in price from .$1.50 per yard 

 up to several dollars. Practically the entire 

 output of the United States, worth about $5,- 

 000,000 a year, is made in Connecticut. 



VENATION, vena' shun, the arrangement of 

 veins in leaves. The veins are a part of the 

 framework which supports the cellular tissue. 

 and their arrangement is related to the shape of 

 the leaf and its mode of germination. There 

 are three principal plans of arrangement in 

 network, in parallel lines, and in branching, or 

 forked, lines. 



The netted-veined leaves exhibit the greatest 

 variety, and are divided into several groups. 

 Those having a single midrib, from which there 

 are branching primary veins terminating in 

 delicate veinlets curving upward just within the 

 margin of the leaf, as in the lilac, are called 

 true-netted leaves. When the primary veins 

 from the midrib extend directly to the edge of 

 the leaf, as in the elm, oak and chestnut, the 

 leaves are said to be feather-veined. In an- 

 other group of netted leaves the primary veins 

 start with the midrib from the base of the leaf 

 instead of branching off at intervals alon^ its 

 length. In still others there are several mid- 

 ribs extending from the base to the points of 

 the leaf, as in the maple and castor leaves. 



Long, slender, straight-edged leaves are usu- 

 ally parallel-veined. The ribs may extend 

 lengthwise from the base to the tip of the leaf, 

 as in the lily, or in more or less divergent paral- 

 lel lines, as in the palm, or may extend trans- 

 versely across the leaf from a midrib, as in the 

 canna leaf. 



