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VIADUCT, a term applied to a roadway supported on aSuccession of arches.
VIGNETTE, a running ornament in Gothic mouldings.
VIGNOLA, a name commonly given to James Bakozzi,°r Baroggio, from the place of his birth, a small town in'he duchy of Modena . He was born in 1507, and was theSon of a person of consequence, whom the political strife of'he day obliged to expatriate himself. James discovered aneai 'ly inclination for the arts, and was sent for education to■bologna , where, from painting, to which he was first attached,he directed his attention to architecture, and by variousdesigns, upon the principles of Vitruvius , some of which heeommunicated to the historian Guicciardini , he acquired anearly reputation. With a view to farther improvement, he'yent to Rome , and, being admitted into the Academy of De-Sl gn, then newly founded, was there employed in measuring'he most celebrated remains of antiquity; in the prosecution°f which labour he evinced uncommon taste and precision;s ° that the abbe Francisco Primaticcio , an able painter and“•'chitect of Bologna, who was sent to Rome in 1537 by~ t'ancis I. of France , to procure designs of the ancient build-*Ugs and casts of statues, was induced to avail himself of'he assistance of Vignola, and on his return took him withh'm to France , where he drew plans for several eminents 'i'uctures. After two years’ residence in that country, Vig-nola returned to Bologna , and was employed in forming aP'an for the fa§ade of the church of St. Petronius , but,through the envy of his competitors, it was not executed tills °me years afterwards. In and near this city he built somePalaces, and constructed the canal of Naviglio, running'hence to Ferrara. Unduly recompensed for this work, he'^ent to Placentia, and planned a palace for the Duke of' arma. After his return to Rome , in 1550, he built severalc hurches there ; and, through the interest of Vasari, was’’Ppointed architect to Pope Julius III. , for whom he built? v >Ha, and near it a small church, dedicated to St. Andrew,ln the form of an ancient temple; and by his command he"Iso brought the Aqua Vergine to Rome . After the death
Julius, he was employed by Cardinal Alexander Farnese ‘a the construction of the magnificent palace, or castle, of'-^prarola ; and he had likewise the charge of building thea^urch of the Jesuits at Rome , an edifice of extraordinarybeauty and grandeur ; but it was raised only to the cornice'afore the death of Vignola, and was finished by his disciple,Janies della Porta. After the decease of Michael Angelo ,^’gnola was appointed to succeed him as architect of St.Ne'er’s, in conjunction with Piero Ligorio, a Neapolitan;' v hi c h engagement, added to his advanced age, obliged him
decline an invitation from Philip II. to the court of Spain ., e was, however, consulted with regard to the different plans® ,v en in for the Escurial ; and one furnished by himself was"ghly approved, though not adopted. His other professional“hours were interrupted by a commission from Gregory XIII. ,
® settle the limits between the territories of the Church andhose of the Duke of Tuscany ; which he executed to theP°pe’s satisfaction. Upon his return from this service, he'' r " a seized with a fever, and died in 1573, aged 66. His1 '. f!r, Huns were solemnly interred in the church of Santa Mariafe da Rotunda, the ancient Pantheon.
^'gnola acquired reputation as an author no less than asa Practical artist. His rules for the five orders were formed°h the purest taste of antiquity, and have been always, e ckoned classical and original. His treatise on the sub-^ e °'> in three volumes quarto, has been often reprinted,^ translated into almost all the European languages.C«e French translation, with the commentaries of Davi-ler > is most esteemed. Vignola also wrote a treatise
on practical perspective, which has passed through manyeditions.
VILLA, (from the Latin, ) a country-house ; of which thesituation ought to be agreeable, commodious, and healthy,with winter and summer apartments ; and surrounded withtrees, to yield a cool refreshing air and shade during the heatof summer, and break the stormy cold winds of the winter.The Roman villas were very magnificent. See the descriptionof Pliny ’s villas, under the article House.
VISE, a spiral staircase winding round a central newel orperpendicular shaft.
VISUAL POINT, the point of vision from which anobject is viewed. See Point.
Visual Ray, the thread or beam of light reflected to theeye from a certain point of the object.
VITRUVIAN SCROLL, a peculiar pattern of scroll-work used in classical architecture, consisting of entwinedundulations.
VITRUVIUS, M. POLLIO, a very distinguished writer on architecture, is supposed to have flourished in the timesof Julius Caesar and Augustus . Of his parentage, and placeof nativity, nothing certain is known : Verona and Plaisanceboth claim him ; but the pretensions of Formiae , now Molade Gaeta, are more generally allowed. Of his liberal edu-cation, and his travels for information and improvement, therecan be no doubt. By the exercise of his profession he hadacquired some property, though perhaps not very consider-able ; for he says, he did not, like the generality of archi-tects, solicit employment. Under Augustus , or perhaps oneof the succeeding emperors, to whom lie dedicated his works,he occupied the post of Inspector of Military Engines. Butas Pliny the Elder mentions his name among other authors,in his Natural History, composed in the reign of Vespasian ,his work must have been published before that period. Ofedifices planned or constructed by him, one only is mentionedby himself, which was a basilica at Fano. His work wasdiscovered in MS. by Poggio, in the fifteenth century, andit has ever since been held in high estimation. The tenbooks, into which it is distributed, not only treat on every-thing belonging to buildings public and private, their site,materials, forms, ornaments, conveniences, and the like; butinclude much of what would be termed engineering, civiland military; and even digress to geometrical problems andastronomical inventions. Besides the instruction that may bederived from it, it has afforded much important matter to theantiquary relative to the state of art and science, as well asthe detail of private life, among the Romans.
Some of the most esteemed editions of Vitruvius are byDan. Barbari, Venet. fol. 1567; J. de Laet, Amst. fob 1649;Galiani, Neap, fob 1758, with an Italian translation andnotes. Claude Perrault has given a good French translation,Paris, fob 1684; and we have an English one by Mr. New-ton, London , 1791. A magnificent edition of the civil archi-tecture of Vitruvius , in two parts, royal quarto, has beenalso published by W. Wilkins, Jun., A.M., F.R. S., &c.During the reign of Augustus , it does not appear that theRomans had one architect, sculptor, painter, or musician,except Vitruvius, who has given Aristoxenus ’s system inLatin ; but he was obliged to retain the Greek technica ,as he was the first Roman writer on the subject of music,and used Greek technical words as we do Italian. Vitruvius has described the theatrical vases used by the Greeks forthe augmentation and continuation of sound, and has givena description of the organ of the ancients worked by thefall of water.
VI V 0, the shaft of a column. See Column.