VAN 



VAN 



vifit him, and fee him paint ; frequently fitting to him for 

 his portrait, having otliers of his wife and children ; and on 

 the 5th July, 1632, conferred upon hiiTi the honour of 

 knighthood, and foon afterwards granted him an annuity of 

 200/. a-year for his life. 



Popularity and occupation now flowed in full tide upon 

 him, and the rapidity of even his pencil could fcarcely keep 

 pace witli the commifTions he received, for portraits efpe- 

 cially. There are few houfes of the old nobility of the 

 country wherein there are not to be found fome piftures by 

 Vandyck. In the king's palaces, the portraits of Charles 

 and his queen and family are numerous. One of a very fine 

 quality adorns the Louvre. At lord Digby's in Warwick- 

 (hire, is a great numberof his portraits. At Petworth, befides 

 the two pictures mentioned above, painted at Venice, are eleven 

 portraits by him, all of the Percy family, or their immediate 

 friends. At Warwick Caftle is the like number ; and in 

 each are works of the firft-rate quality. At Wilton, the 

 grandeft of his piftures painted here adorns a magnificent 

 apartment : it is of William, earl of Pen\broke, and his 

 family. The ftyle in which it is executed is laige and 

 grand, and of a much higher quality than his later produc- 

 tions exhibit, which, in comparifon, have only delicacy to 

 compete with the boldnefs and breadth of this. There are 

 here alfo Biany others of his hand ; but it would be an al- 

 moft endlefs and a needlefs tadc to enumerate the piftures 

 which he painted during the fixteen years he refided here, 

 the^grcater part of which comprehended thofe of a large fize. 

 The prices he was paid confined them to the higher clafs, and 

 for them only he wrought. For a half length he had 40/., 

 and for a whole length 60/. This, which at that time was a 

 large fum, and the facihty of his execution, together with his 

 penfion, enabled him to indulge a natural tafte for fplendour 

 and luxury. He kept a fplendid table, and often detained 

 thofe who fat to him to dinner, both for fociety, and the 

 opportunity of ftudying their countenances, and for re- 

 touching their piftures after dinner. He was, however, in- 

 defatigable, as appears from the number of his works, 

 which, though he died fo yoimg, are fcarcely furpafTed in 

 number by thofe of Rubens. His praftice was peculiar. 

 Sir Peter Lely told Mrs. Beale, that Laniere the painter 

 affured, him, that he had fat feven entire days, morning and 

 evening, to Vandyck, for his portrait ; and that he would 

 not let him look at the picture, till he was hirafclf fatisfied 

 with it. He was addifted to pleafure, was fond of mufic, 

 and treated muficians with liberahty ; was a generous 

 patron of all ingenious men, and painted the portraits oi 

 many gratuitoufly. But he paid dear for his indulgence ; 

 his luxurious and fedentary hfe brought on the gout, and 

 hurt his fortune ; and he unwifcly could not, like his 

 mafter, refill the temptation of the time, the purfuit of the 

 philofopher's Hone ; in which perhaps, as Mr. Walpole fays, 

 he might have been encouraged by his friend fir Kenelm 

 Digby. Towards the dole of his hfe, the king bellowed 

 on him the daughter of the unfortunate lord Gowry ( Maria 

 Ruthven ) for a wife ; with whom he acquired only honour 

 and beauty, and by whom he left one daughter, afterwards 

 married to Mr. Stepney, who was an officer of the horfe- 

 guards on the re-etlabli(hment of the royal family. 



Soon after his marriage he revifited his native city, and 

 from thence went to Paris, hoping to be employed in the deco- 

 ration of the gallery of the Louvre ; but was difappointed, 111 

 finding the commiffion given to Pouffin, who had been brought 

 from Rome exprefsly for this purpofe. Vandyck then re- 

 Wimed to England, and ftiiremulous of his great mafter's 

 renown, was ambitious of being employed upon fome great 

 Rational work ; and propofed to the king,' by fir K. Digby, 



to paint the walls of the banquetting-houfe (of which the 

 ceihng had already been adorned by Rubens) with the hif- 

 tory and proceffion of the order of the Garter, for which he 

 afl<ed 8000/. ; a propofal far more agreeable to the tafte 

 than to the purfe of the king : and if it had been accepted, 

 two events which foon after occurred, would have totally 

 prevented its completion, viz. the double triumph of death 

 over the patron and the artift. Tlie former indeed lived 

 fome years after the dcceafe of the latter ; but his political 

 demife followed Ihortly upon that event, which occurred on 

 the 9th December 1641, when he had only attained the 

 age of 42. 



Though Vandyck produced many valuable works, as 

 we have feen, in hiftorical painting, yet it by no means ap- 

 pears to have been his forte ; as he feldom exhibited much 

 expreffion, but a tame fweetnefs of effeA reigns in them. 

 It is doubtlefs in portraiture that he ftands mod decidedly 

 confpicuous, and he may be placed at leaft alongfide of 

 Titian-: for if the palm of fuperiority be given to the latter 

 for his heads, the former muft have equal praife for every 

 other part of his piftures, and particularly for the ordon- 

 nance of the whole. His better compofitions are confpi- 

 cuous for their unity and propriety ; but his great quality is 

 his perfedl underftanding of the nature of all the parts, the 

 head, the hands, drapery, fides, &c. and the delightful 

 union of tone and beauty of execution, which he never failed 

 to give. In identity of character he was not often confpi- 

 cuous : perhaps the cardinal Bentivoglio is the mofl perfeft 

 exemplar ; but fir Jofhua Reynolds has fuperadded that in- 

 valuable quality to all that he might have acquired from the 

 works of Vandyck or of Titian. 



Vandyck, Philip, known by the name of the little 

 Vandyck, was born at Amfterdam in 1680, of a different 

 family to that of fir Anthony, and was a difciple of Boonen, 

 under whofe tuition he remained till he had become almoft 

 capable of teaching his inftruclor. He painted fmall por- 

 traits, and from them obtained his cognomen ; but was 

 more fuccefsfuUy employed in painting convcrfation pieces, 

 ladies at their toilettes, gay affemblies, &c. which he com- 

 pofed and painted ingenioufly. He died at the Hague 

 in 1752. 



VANDYKE'S Islands, in Geography, two illands, 

 Great and Little, in the Weft Indies, fituated to the north- 

 weft of Tortola. 



VANE, Sir Henry, in Biography, a perfon of pecuhar 

 talents and difpofition, who exhibited a confpicuous charac- 

 ter during the period of the Enghfli Commonwealth, was the 

 eldeft fon of fir Henry Vane, of Hadlow in Kent, and Raby 

 caftle in Durham, fecretary and treafurer of the houfehold 

 to Charles I. He was born about the year 1 61 2, educated 

 at Weftminfter fchool, and at the age of fixteen admitted 

 as a gentleman-commoner at Magdalen college, Oxford. 

 Here he remained for fome time without matriculation, 

 of which he difapproved ; and having vifitcd France and 

 Geneva, he returned with an avowed difafFetlion to the 

 hturgy and government of the Enghfti church, which no 

 efforts of biftiop Laud were fufficient to overcome, although 

 he was employed by the king for this purpofe. In the year 

 1634 he joined a number of perfons, v.-ho being made un- 

 cafy by the meafures that were purfued at home, emigrated 

 to New England ; and being favourably received in that 

 colony on account of Iiis rank and talents, he was foon ap- 

 pointed governor of the province of Maffachufetts. Here 

 he incurred odium by his patronage of Antinomianifm ; and 

 having taken an aftive part in diileminating thofe fcntiments 

 with regard to religion that occafioncd contentions very in- 

 jurious to the colony, he was excluded from his high ofHqe, 

 4 F 2 and 



