Velazquez Ws-Tas-kosA Spanish \ba-'lath-kath\, Diego (Rodriguez de Silva) (baptized June 6, 1599, Sevilla, Spain—d. Aug. 6, 1660, Madrid) Spanish painter. He was apprenticed to Francisco Herrera the Elder before being trained by Francisco Pacheco. His early works were mostly religious or genre scenes. After arriving in Madrid in 1623, he painted a portrait of Philip IV that won him immediate success and an appointment as court painter. His position gave him access to the royal collections, including works by Titian, who exerted the greatest influence on his style. In his portraits from this period, only the faces and hands of the figures are accentuated, and the dark figures stand out against a light background. A visit to Italy (1629-31) further developed his style, and on his return to Madrid he entered his most productive period. Velazquez created a new type of informal royal portrait for Philip’s hunting lodge, and his portraits of court dwarfs display the same discerning eye as those of his royal sub¬ jects. On a second visit to Rome (1649-51) he painted a portrait of Pope
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Innocent X. The powerful head, brilliant combinations of crimson of the curtain, chair, and cope are painted with fluent technique and almost imperceptible brushstrokes that go far beyond the late manner of Titian and announce the last stage in Velazquez’s development. This portrait was copied innumerable times and won him immediate and lasting renown in Italy. In his last years he created his masterpiece. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656). In this casual scene, the artist is shown painting the king and queen in the presence of the infanta Margarita and her atten¬ dants; the nearly life-size figures are painted in more or less detail accord¬ ing to their relation to the central figure of the infanta and to the source of light, creating a remarkable illusion of reality never surpassed by Velazquez or any other artist of his age. He is universally acknowledged as one of the giants of Western art.
Velde, Henri van de (b. April 3, 1863, Antwerp, Belg.—d. Oct. 25, 1957, Zurich, Switz.) Belgian architect, designer, and teacher. Sharing the philosophy of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, van de Velde believed in creating beautiful everyday objects. Increasingly occu¬ pied by a philosophy of total design, in 1895 he designed Bloemenwerf, a house for his wife and himself outside of Brussels for which he also designed all the interiors and furnishings. In 1896 he designed furniture and interiors for the Paris art galleries of Samuel Bing; because of the curving, delicate nature of these designs, van de Velde is credited with bringing the Art Nouveau style to Paris. (Van de Velde himself is gener¬ ally associated with the Jugendstil movement, which was the German branch of Art Nouveau design.) In Weimer in 1902 he reorganized the arts and crafts school and the academy of fine art and thus laid the foun¬ dations for the amalgamation of the two bodies into the Bauhaus in 1919. He designed his best-known structure, the curving, sinuous Werkbund Theatre in Cologne, in 1914. His later work includes the Belgian pavil¬ ions at the international exhibitions in Paris (1937) and New York (1939). He also created graphic design work, generally in the curvilinear Art Nouveau style, and he spread his ideas through lecturing and teaching.
Velde Vvel-doV Willem van de, the Elder (b. 1611, Leiden, Neth.—d. December 1693, London, Eng.) Dutch marine painter. He sailed with the Dutch fleet and painted its engagements with the English. Set¬ tling in England in 1672, he continued to paint marine subjects, often in collaboration with his son, Willem the Younger (1633-1707), who became the foremost marine painter of his time. The latter was appointed court painter by Charles II in 1677 and was commissioned to paint England’s naval battles; many of his works are housed in London’s National Mari¬ time Museum.
Velikovsky V.ve-li-'kof-skeV Immanuel (b. June 10, 1895, Vitebsk, Russia—d. Nov. 17, 1979, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. writer. He earned various degrees in Moscow and Edinburgh before moving to the U.S. in 1939. In his first book, Worlds in Collision (1950), he hypoth¬ esized, relying on legends of ancient peoples, that Venus and Mars had approached Earth closely c. 1500 bc, disturbing its rotation, axis inclina¬ tion, and magnetic field. His claim was widely discredited by astrono¬ mers, and the book’s publication caused U.S. scientists to threaten a boycott of his publisher. Later works set out other controversial theories about ancient history and catastrophic occurrences.
Velociraptor \v3-Ta-s9-,rap-tor\ Genus of clawed theropod dinosaur (family Dromaeosauridae) that flourished in central and eastern Asia dur¬ ing the Late Cretaceous Epoch (99-65 million years ago). It was related to an Early Cretaceous (144-99 million years ago) North American genus, Deinonychus. Both genera had a sickle-shaped claw on each foot and ossi¬ fied tendon reinforcements in the tail that enabled them to keep their bal¬ ance while striking and slashing at prey. Swift, agile predators of small herbivores, they grew up to 6 ft (1.8 m) long and weighed up to 100 lb (45 kg).
velocity Quantity that designates the speed and direction in which a body moves. It can be represented graphically by an arrow (pointing in the direction of the motion), the length of which is proportional to the magnitude, or speed. For an object in circular motion, the direction at any instant is tangential to the circle at that point, and so is perpendicular to the radius at that point. The instantaneous speed of a vehicle, such as an automobile, can be determined by a speedometer, or mathematically by differential calculus. The average speed is the ratio of the distance traveled in any given time interval divided by the time taken.
velvet Fabric having a short, dense pile, used in clothing and uphol¬ stery. Velvet is made in the pile weave (see weaving), of silk, cotton, or
synthetic fibres and is characterized by a soft, downy surface formed by clipped yarns (see shearing). Its “wrong” side is smooth and shows the weave used. Velvets can be made water-repellent and crush-resistant. They are also occasionally patterned or embossed.
vena cava \ l ve-n3- , ka-vo\ Either of two major veins that deliver oxygen- depleted blood to the right side of the heart. The superior vena cava drains the upper body, and the inferior vena cava drains the lower body. See also CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM, CIRCULATION.
Venda Bantu-speaking people who inhabit the northeastern corner of South Africa and neighbouring Zimbabwe. The Venda, today numbering more than 750,000, were the last of the peoples in the area to come under European control. Agriculture dominates their economy; cattle raising has increased in importance. Venda chiefs are traditionally custodians of the land, while local headmen permit household groups to occupy and work tracts of land.
Venda Former black enclave, northeastern South Africa. Located near the Zimbabwe border, it attracted the Venda people, who migrated into the region in the early 1700s from what is now Zimbabwe. It was annexed to Transvaal in 1898 and was a distinct administrative unit within South Africa when the country designated it a homeland for Venda-speaking people in 1962. The territory was granted partial self-government in 1973 and became an independent republic in 1979; it never received interna¬ tional recognition. After apartheid was abolished, Venda was reincorpo¬ rated into South Africa in 1994 as part of the newly created Northern (now Limpopo) province.