the gods, which before his time boasted neither shape nor symmetry, he converted into creditable pieces of sculpture; and although in doing so he did not go beyond the stiff and expressionless forms of Egyptian art, it is probable he had to invent his own models, and doubtful if he derived assistance from any older style of art. These improved images, and the artists who manufactured them, were in after time called Dædalian. His rough statues were described as endowed with life—a hyperbolical eulogium of their artistic merits, which some authors have interpreted to mean that he was also the inventor of automata. He went to Crete, where he executed many ingenious works, and amongst others the labyrinth, in which, together with his son Icarus, he was himself destined to be confined. It was to escape from this prison that the ingenious artisan is said to have invented the sails of ships—the famous and wonderful wings described by poetical writers. The account of Diodorus Siculus is, that Daedalus effected his escape on a ship secretly provided for him by the queen of Crete; that he obviated the want of a crew by the invention of those sails which had in fact, and especially at a distance, the appearance of wings; that he was wrecked against an uninhabited island, where his son was drowned; and that from this disaster the name of Icaria was given to the place, and of Icarian to the surrounding sea. In whatever way the escape was accomplished, the fugitive is said to have repaired to Cumæ, where he built a temple to Apollo, and afterwards proceeded to Sicily, where he carried out many and important works, some of which were still extant in the time of Diodorus. He is said to have been put to death upon this island; but the statement rests on doubtful authority. The school he founded reached its culminating artistical development at Ægina, where, but half a century before the period of Phidias, it was in full vigour; but even after the Pericleian age it continued to produce many, if not all the works of sacred sculpture, which adorned the temples of Italy and Sicily, as well as those of his native Greece.—R. M.
* DAFFINGER, Moriz Michael, a miniature painter, born at Vienna in 1790. The son of an artist, and the pupil of his father, at a very early age he gave proofs of his talents for painting. Having completed his education under Füger, he worked by the side of his father at the imperial porcelain works of Vienna, where he gained both experience and fame. As a miniature portrait painter he had, for many years, no equal in Germany, and many of his works have been engraved or lithographed at Vienna and elsewhere.—R. M.
D'AGINCOURT. See Agincourt.
DAGOBERT I., king of France, was born about a.d. 600, and was the son of Clotaire II., whom he succeeded in 628. Aquitaine, with the city of Toulouse, declared for his brother Caribert; but on his death in 636, Dagobert reunited the whole Merovingian monarchy under his own sceptre, and caused Chilperic, Caribert's eldest son, to be put to death. Dagobert was cruel and debauched; but with the vices he had some of the virtues of a barbarian, and was distinguished for his bravery and generosity. he waged successful war against the Saxons, the Bretons, Gascons, and Slavonians; but he stained his laurels by shocking cruelties, and caused no fewer than ten thousand families of Bulgarians, to whom he had given refuge in their flight from the Huns, to be massacred in one night. Dagobert shook off the control of Pepin, mayor of the palace, enacted laws for the Franks, and greatly encouraged commerce. He died at Epernay in 638, and was the first monarch buried at St. Denis.—J. T.
DAGOBERT II., was the son of Sigebert II., king of Austrasia, and the grandson of Dagobert I. On the death of his father in 656, he was shut up in a convent by Grimoald, mayor of the palace, who wished to obtain the crown for his own son. Dagobert was secretly sent to Ireland, and thence into Scotland, where he married Matilda, a Scottish princess. He eventually returned to Austrasia in 674, and was acknowledged king; but he was assassinated in 679.—J. T.
DAGOBERT III., king of France, was born in 699, and succeeded his father, Childebert III., in 711. His authority was merely nominal, the whole power of the state being wielded by Pepin d'Heristal, mayor of the palace. Dagobert died in 715.
DAGUERRE, Louis-Jacques-Mandé, who has given his name to one branch of the photographic art, was born in 1789. He started in life as a stage painter, and acquired much celebrity in his profession. He studied with great care the best methods of illumination, and succeeded in producing the most marvellous illusions. The greatest triumph of his art was the diorama, which for many years was a great object of attraction to the Parisians. In 1839 a fire broke out in his establishment, and all his valuable property was at once destroyed. This calamity, however, was the means of directing his attention to properties of light still more magical than those which entranced the spectators in the revolving platform of the diorama. His researches resulted in the daguerreotype process, by which his name has been rendered illustrious. His grand discovery, and that which will ever mark an era in the history of physical science, was the method of fixing the impressions made by light on a sensitive surface. The method of producing such impressions had been previously known. Porta, Charles Wedgwood, and Sir Humphrey Davy, had succeeded in producing pictures on a prepared surface, but they were baffled in their attempts to render them permanent. As soon as the whole surface was exposed to light, every trace of the picture was obliterated. Daguerre accomplished his object by the use of hyposulphate of soda. The grand desideratum was to find an agent which, while it acted upon the unaltered parts of the sensitive surface, would have no impression on the parts which had undergone a chemical change under the influence of the light. Daguerre found that hyposulphate of soda possessed this differential action, and effected the object in view. Although his chief contribution to science was the fixing of photographic images, still the whole process of the daguerreotype is ingenious and beautiful. The name of Nicéphore Niepce is usually associated with that of Daguerre. They for a time carried on their researches independently; but becoming acquainted with each other's results, they resolved to act in concert. Four years after the date of their associated labours, Niepce died, and Daguerre was left to perfect his process alone. The name of Daguerre is justly given to the process, for, however valuable the services of Niepce might be, the former had undoubtedly the chief merit of bringing the art to that perfection which at once astonished and delighted the world. Although other improved methods have, for many purposes, superseded the process of Daguerre, still they are fundamentally the same. The methods of Talbot in England, and of Bayard and Blanquart-Evrard in France, are only the natural developments of a fundamental discovery in science. The process of Daguerre has never been a favourite one with amateurs, the manipulation being more suitable for the professional man. The most obvious differences in the various processes, and those which chiefly determine the amateur in his adoption of any particular one, consist in the nature of the surfaces on which the image is received. While Daguerre used metallic plates, the more recent processes have substituted paper, albumen, and collodion. The employment of any particular process is determined by the object in view; and though, for many purposes, daguerreotype is superseded, still there are some for which it is specially adapted. In 1839 the French government purchased the invention, and bestowed on its author the decoration of the legion of honour, and a pension for life of six thousand francs. He died at Petit-Brie-sur-Marne, 12th July, 1851.—W. L., M.
DAGUESSEAU. See Aguesseau.
DAHL, Johann Christian Wilhelm, a German author, was born at Rostock in the duchy of Mecklenburg, of very poor parents, September 1, 1771. By the help of a few friends, who early perceived the extraordinary talent of the young man for acquiring languages, he was enabled to study, first at the university of his native town, then at Jena and Göttingen. Having left these places he became tutor in a private family, and next gave lectures on philology as connected with the bible, at Rostock. Finally, in 1802, he was named professor of Greek, and two years after also of theology, at the latter university. He died in 1810, in consequence, it is believed, of too severe attention to his studies. His chief works are—"Observationes philolog. atque crit.;" "Chrestomathia Philoniana;" "Theocriti Carmina;" and several translations from the classics—F. M.
* DAHL, Johann Christian, one of the most renowned landscape and marine painters of modern times, was born at Bergen in Norway in 1788. After a sojourn at Copenhagen, and a visit to Dresden and Berlin, he travelled through the Tyrol and part of Italy with Prince Christian of Denmark. At Rome he gained the friendship of the great Thorwaldsen, and had the honour of having his bust modelled by that veteran of sculptors. On his return to Germany he settled at Dresden and produced a
