(Caroni, Annali di Genera ; Botta, Soria DORICeNY, SIR NICOLAS, a distinguished French designer and engraver, was born at Paris iu 1657. He was the son of Michel Dorigny, a painter and engraver of some celebrity in his day, who married Vouet'a daughter; but his father died when he was very young, and Nicolas was educated as an advocate. Ilia taste however led him to follow the arts as a profession, and he accordingly went to his brother Louis at Rome, who wan, like his father, a painter and engraver, and put himself under his tuition. He lived twenty-eight year' in Italy, devoting his time chiefly to etching and engraving, and ho became one of the first of the French historical engravers in his style, being inferior to Girard Audrau alone. His works are however very hard, though they are drawn with great vigour and abouud in expression, and his bold heavy lines appear to have been executed with extreme ease ; but there is no delicacy of light and shade or tone in any of his norks.
Dorigny engraved many celebrated Italian paintings duriug his long stay in Italy, including three of the best pictures in Rome : the 'Transfiguration,' by Raffaelle, in 1705, on the whole his finest work ; the ' Taking Down from the Cross,' by Daniels da Volterra, in 1710 ; and the 'Lame Man Healed by St. Peter,' by Cigoli. He engraved also the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian,' after Domenic:bine, and other celebrated pictures.
He became acquainted at Rome with some English gentlemen, who persuaded him to visit England for the purpose of engraving the cartoons of Raffaelle. He arrived in England iu 1711, and commenced
his task in the spring of the following year. Queen Anne had given him a room in Hampton Court, with the necessary perquisites. The expense was defrayed by subscription at four guineas the set. The prints were, with the assistance of Charles Dupuis and Claude Dubose, finished April 1719, when he presented two complete eats to George I.,'who gave him a purse of I00 guineas, and knighted him in the following year. As his sight at length failed him, he deter mined to desist from further practice, and hi 1723 he made a sale of his drawings, and in 1724 returned to Paris. His drawings were sold for 3204, at the sale of which the drawings of the cartoons brought 52 guineas, and a lot of 104 heads and other studies from them, 74i.
These heads were afterwards engraved by various French artists, and published with some other studies by John under the title of ' The School of Raffaelle, or the Student's Guide to Expression in Historical Painting.' Dorigny was elected a member of the French Academy of Painting in 172.5, and died at Paris in 1740. He engraved altogether. 153 plates, according to Vertu& Ilis elder brother Loci* was a good fresco-painter ; he lived chiefly in Italy, and died at Verona in 1742, aged eighty-eight.
(Vertue, Catalogue of Engrarers, ke.; IVatelet, Dictionnaire des Arts, de.; Huber, Masud der A motenrs, etc)