Doria palace was richly decorated by Del Vaga with cinquecento arabesques. Lord Ward possesses a noble work by this painter, who died at Rome on the 19th of October, 1547.—R. N. W.
VAHL, Martin, a Norwegian botanist, was born at Bergen on 10th October, 1749, and died on 24th December, 1804. His studies were prosecuted first at Bergen, and then at the university of Copenhagen. Subsequently he went to Upsal and became a pupil of Linnæus. In 1779 he was chosen lecturer on botany in the Copenhagen garden. He was appointed by the king of Denmark to travel in Europe. In 1785 he returned to Copenhagen, and was appointed professor of natural history, and was intrusted with the continuation of the Flora Danica. He subsequently travelled in Norway. In 1799 and 1800 he was sent by government to examine botanical specimens in Holland and Paris. He was afterwards appointed professor of history. He published "Symbolæ Botanicæ Enumeratis Plantariis," and "Eclogæ Americanæ." His library and herbaries were purchased by the king of Denmark. He paid attention also to zoology. A genus, Vahlia, has been named after him.—J. H. B.
VAILLANT, François le, a celebrated traveller, was born in 1753 at Paramaribo in Dutch Guiana. His parents, however, returned to Holland in 1763, and soon after removed to France. The next seventeen years of Vaillant's life were spent chiefly in that country and in Germany. He was a great lover of the chase, which he followed not merely for amusement, but also with a scientific purpose, carefully studying the habits and character of birds, and becoming at length quite an adept in ornithology and other branches of natural history. In 1777 he went up to Paris to improve himself in his favourite pursuit, and soon after became possessed with an uncontrollable desire to travel in countries where civilization had not extirpated the original inhabitants of the forest and wilderness. Accordingly in 1780 he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, intending to traverse the entire length of Africa. He made several excursions into the interior, living on amicable terms with Caffres, Hottentots, and Bosjesmans; but he soon found that his original intention was quite impracticable. The most northerly point he reached was a little beyond the tropic of Capricorn. This was in his last trip. Finding it too dangerous to persevere further, he made his way back to the Cape, and took shipping for Europe in July, 1784. After his return he retired to the country, and busied himself with arranging and preserving his splendid collection. The composition and publication of his valuable works, also, occupied a considerable portion of his time. Though leading a quiet, inoffensive life, he was imprisoned in 1793, and owed his life to the death of Robespierre. He died at his estate near Sezanne in 1824. He wrote an account of his travels in Africa, a natural history of African birds, besides separate books on parrots, birds of paradise, &c., &c.—R. M., A.
VAILLANT, Jean Foi, a celebrated medallist, born at Beauvais on the 24th of May, 1632. He lost his father at the age of three years, and was brought up by a maternal uncle. He was educated with a view of succeeding to a magistracy which his uncle possessed. Being, however, too young for this post when his uncle died, he changed his attention and applied himself to the study of physic, and was admitted doctor in that faculty at the age of twenty-four. Hitherto he had shown no particular inclination for the study of medals, but an occasion now presented itself. A farmer in the environs of Beauvais discovered a quantity of ancient medals, and carried them to Vaillant, who first examined them superficially, but afterwards with attention. His taste for medals increased with the discoveries he made of their nature and use. Going to Paris he called on M. Seguin, who had a rare collection, and afterwards visited other antiquaries of reputation in medallic science. Having met the minister Colbert, he was commissioned to travel through Italy, Sicily, and Greece in search of medals proper for the cabinet of Louis XIV. Four days after sailing he was taken prisoner by an Algerine corsair. After being released he was nearly taken prisoner by another corsair. As he possessed several rare medals at the time, in order to secure them, he resorted to the strange expedient of swallowing them. He was not, however, taken prisoner, and nature afterwards relieved him of his burden. He subsequently penetrated into the heart of Egypt and Persia, and found many new treasures, which recompensed him for his troubles. He was handsomely rewarded by the king on his return. Vaillant wrote several valuable works on numismatics. He died of apoplexy, October 23, 1706.—Jean François Foi Vaillant, the son of the above, was educated for the medical profession, but was more celebrated as a numismatist.—W. J. P.
VAILLANT, Sebastien, a French botanist, was born at Vigny, near Pontoise, on 26th May, 1669, and died at Paris on 22nd May, 1722. At the age of five he showed a decided inclination for botany. He was also fond of music, and became organist to the Benedictines of Pontoise. He visited the hospitals, and took an interest in the cases; and he became an assistant to the surgeons. Surgery became his favourite study for some time, and he entered the army as surgeon in 1688. He went to Paris in 1691, and attended the lectures of Tournefort, and thus his zeal for botany was revived. He was appointed director of the royal garden and sub-demonstrator. He also superintended the formation of a pharmaceutical cabinet in the garden, as well as of hothouses and conservatories. His "Botanicum Parisiense," or account of plants found near Paris, was published in 1721. He also wrote several papers on plants cultivated in the garden, and on various natural orders, which were inserted in the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences. His large and valuable herbarium was purchased by Louis XV., and deposited in the collection at the Jardin des Plantes. A genus, Valantia, was named after him by Tournefort.—J. H. B.
VAILLANT, Wallerant, an eminent Flemish portrait painter, was born in 1623, at Lille, then a part of Flanders. He learned painting of Erasmus Quellinus at Antwerp. He had acquired considerable celebrity when, in 1658, he went to Frankfort to paint the coronation portrait of the Emperor Leopold. This work was greatly admired, and Vaillant received numerous commissions from the principal personages of the emperor's court and others. He then accompanied Marshal Grammont to Paris, where he painted the queen and other members of the royal family and court. He returned and settled at Amsterdam, and though wealthy, continued to paint portraits and family groups of the nobility and leading citizens of the Low Countries. He died in 1677. The best of his portraits are little inferior to those of Vandyck. There are also in the collections many very clever portraits in chalk by him. Before he went to Frankfort, Vaillant executed several plates in mezzotint for Prince Rupert, who instructed him in the new process. As Vaillant was the first artist who worked in mezzotint, his prints, which consist of subject-pieces and landscapes, as well as portraits, are now much prized. Vaillant had four younger brothers whom he instructed in portrait painting or mezzotint engraving; but none of them acquired sufficient reputation to call for specific notice.—J. T—e.
VAILLANT DE GUESLIS, Germain, a learned French bishop and poet, was born at Orleans. He is called in Latin, Germanus Valens Guellius Paimpontius. Vaillant was brought up under the patronage of the Coligni family, and was afterwards appointed a counsellor in the parliament of Paris. Sainte Marthe, the poet, tells us that Francis I. hearing him dispute one day at the royal table, where the most learned and distinguished men of the day were used to assemble, was so pleased with his genius that he praised him in the warmest terms before the whole court. He was promoted from the abbacy of Painpont to the bishopric of Orleans in 1586; and died at Meun, a small town in his diocese, on the 25th of September, 1587. He composed his own epitaph a little while before his death. He was author of a commentary on Virgil, once very popular, and still useful to the scholar. It displays much research and ingenuity, and occasionally throws quite a new light on the obscure places of that poet. Vaillant composed a poem himself when he was seventy years of age, and dedicated it to Elizabeth of Austria. It is said to contain a prophecy of the murder of Henry III. and of the disorders that ensued.—R. M., A.
VAIR, Guillaume du, Bishop of Lisieux in Normandy, and keeper of the seals of France, was born at Paris on the 17th of March, 1556. He was the son of Jean du Vair, who had been procureur-general in the time of Catherine de Medicis and Henry III., and was subsequently created Duc d'Alençon. His son became a conseiller au parlement in 1584, and ten years later was appointed master of requests. The latter post he resigned on his being nominated first president of the parliament of Provence, where he made the acquaintance of the celebrated Nicholas Peiresc, and composed a number of his works. In 1616 Louis XIII. made him keeper of the seals of France, and two years afterwards promoted him to the bishopric of Lisieux. Du Vair died on the 3rd of August, 1621, at Tonneins in Agénois, having been in attendance on the king during the siege of Clérac. His
