THIS distinguished individual and eminent artist, Dominique Vivant Baron Denon, is now more than eighty years of age, and has been the witness of four remarkable eras of natural existence, having moved in public situations from the reign of his early patron, Louis XV. through that of his successor, then through the stormy period of the Revolution, then through the period of Napoleon's splendid career, until he at length witnesses the son of his first royal master seated upon the throne of his ancestors. A man of genius, who has been in constant communication with the numerous, diversified, and original characters, which these periods have been so fertile in, is likely to possess that fund of information and that conversational superiority which have always been attributed to the Barou Denon. He was born at Chalons-SurSoane, of a noble family, and being an only son, was destined, according to the French practice, to be brought up to the law. But it is related that he imbibed a strong disposition to visit the metropolis, and to enter into gayer scenes than the law, in consequence of a gipsy having told his fortune when he was only seven years old, and having predicted that he should be a distinguished favourite of the ladies and a frequenter of numerous courts. We must presume that his faculties were rather precocious, as he bad acquired a very familiar acquaintance with Paris and Versailles, even at the age of sixteen. At this period he had to undergo the operation of lithotomy, and bore both the disease and its violent remedy with great fortitude.

Introduced to Louis XV. his vivacity and the elegance of his mind attracted the particular attention of that monarch. It is well known that his royal patron had always lived in voluptuous indolence, and that, under the name of intellectual pursuits, he had successively adopted those recreations into which Eur. Mag. Vol. 83.

his mistresses had, for their own reasons, persuaded him to enter. Mademoiselle de Romans had persuaded him to study botany, and Madam de Pompadour had excited in him a desire to be able to engrave upon gems. He therefore collected a cabinet of antiques, and this pursuit, acting upon his own predeliction for the study of history, soon produced a wish to acquire a knowledge of medals. A collection of medals was therefore soon formed, and the care of this and of the cabinet of engraved gems and antique stones was entrusted to M. Denon. A desire of gallantry among the French actresses now induced him to write his comedy of "Le bon Pere," and it was not until this period of his life that he had received any instruction in drawing. His parents were naturally uneasy at his being absorbed in the trifling and dissipation of a court, to the exclusion of more important occupations, and at length he accompanied the French ambassador on a mission to St. Petersburgh. Being intrusted with dispatches, he stopped at Potsdam with a hope of being allowed to offer his homage to Frederic the Great, and that monarch condescended to admit him to an interview. At St. Petersburgh, he gave some personal offence to the capricious and extravagant archduke Paul, which prevented his being favourably received by the Empress Catherine. On the death of Louis XV. M. Denon left the court of Russia, and joined Monsieur Vergennes in Denmark, who had been the French ambassador at Stockholm, but who was on his return, to France to assume the functions of foreign minister. Mr. Vergennes, his new patron, now entrusted to him a diplomatic mission to Switzerland, in which he ably executed his public trust, and took every advantage of acquainting himself with the natural beauties of that coun

try. He afterwards visited Voltaire at Ferney, where he was received with

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favour. He was for three years attached to the suite of the Count de Cler mont d'Amboise, the French ambassa dor at Naples, and was himself afterwards Chargé d'Affaire for four years at the same court. It was during this lat ter period that he executed his celebrated Journal and designs from the views of Naples and its environs, and from La Pouille, Calabria, Sicily, and Malta. These works were published in a most superb style, and met with that distinction to which their merits so justly entitled them. He was now admitted to an intimacy with the Cardinal de Bernis, the French ambassador at Rome. The splendid mansion of the Cardinal was then the resort of the Sovereigns and first characters of Europe; and Denon here became acquainted with the Emperor of Germany, Joseph II. and with Gustavus of Sweden, who was afterwards assassinated at the ball, both of these Monarchs were then living in philosophic enjoyment, relieved from the cares of state, and from the rigours of the less hospitable climates of their native countries. It was remarkable at that period, that all the crowned heads of the continent were philosophers, whilst their subjects were sunk in ignorance and barbarism. Now philosophy is supposed to have deserted the monarch, and to have found refuge with the people. The death of Monsieur de Vergennes terminated the diplomatic employment of Monsieur Denon, but he again resorted to that country for objects of art. Upon his return to Paris, it was proposed to him to belong to the academy, and he would have been elected into their body as an amateur, but he preferred being a candidate as an artist, and the works, which he submitted to that body in support of his pre tensions, immediately secured his elec tion.

As he had as yet visited only the southern states of Italy, he was now desirous of returning to that country to pursue at his leisure a study of the various schools of art in Verona, Bologna, Venice, and Florence. He repaired to Venice, and during a residence of five years he prosecuted his celebrated collection of drawings from every school of painting, and specimens of the engravings of every age. It is this invaluable collection which forms/ the delight and occupation of his old age. The influence of the French Revolution at length obliged him to fly from Venice to Florence, and, being again compelled to leave Florence, he

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repaired to Switzerland, hoping that in a country so retired he might find an asylum; but the French authorities having declared every Frenchman an alien who expatriated himself at this revolutionary crisis, M. Denon was obliged to return to France at the period of the most terrific anarchy. In Paris he had now neither friends nor pecuniary supplies, and his being of noble descent alone exposed him to dangers. He was about to be conveyed to the department of his family, when the painter David, of his own accord, procured an order to detain him at Paris, to paint the national costumes which were about to be adopted. This act of considerate benevolence on the part of David has never been forgotten by M. Denon. His new office brought him in constant contact with the various sanguinary characters of the revolutionary period, but it may be observed that many of them did him services, whilst he experienced injury from none.

On one occasion M. Denon was summoned before the Committee of Public Safety to give an account of the progress he had made on the national costumes. Here he had the equivocal good fortune of attracting the notice of Robespierre, who, to M. Denon's alarm and astonishment, passed the rest of the night with him, and evinced, by his conversation, that he was capable of appreciating superior education, and the manners of higher society.

It was at the house of Madame de Beauharnais that the artist first became acquainted with the rising prodigy of the age, and his intuitive penetration into character immediately determined him to devote himself to Napoleon. Upon Buonaparte's offering to allow him to join the intended expedition to Egypt, M. Denon, although nearly sixty years of age, did not hesitate to accept the proposal, and he accompanied the army as one of the Sçavans. His work upon Egypt, both for the merits of the text and the beauty of the engravings, has justly acquired him the praise of Europe. In this splendid work are evidences of a capacity for profound thought, for acute observation, and ingenious as well as learned elucidations of what was imperfect or obscure his engravings and paintings embrace the most diversified objectsthe relics of antiquity-the grand and imposing features of nature in the deserts and on the Nile and plains of Egypt the costumes and characters of the Turks and Arabs, and their battles with the French. After so well acquit

ting himself in Egypt, M. Denon re turned to France with Buonaparte, and was appointed by him director general of the Museum, with the commission of designing the medals to commemo rate his history, and with orders to erect the intended column to the glory of the French armies, and to superintend the embellishing of the principal monuments. Thus of necessity attached to Buonaparte, M. Denon followed the French armies for fifteen years. On one occasion he was present when a long military report or dispatch was read, and which evidently gave the Emperor dissatisfaction.Ask," said Napoleon to the reader," ask Denon, whose portfolios are full of posterity, if in what you read there is a subject for a painting or a medal.” At the coronation M. Denon designed the medal commemorating that splendid ceremony, and the bad the arrangement of the grand military fête which was given on the occasion in the wood of Boulogne ; he had also to arrange the great mili tary fête on the top of Mount St. Bernard, given to the honour of General Desaix. The most brilliant exploits of the French armies in the campaigns of Austria, Spain, and Poland were designed by M. Denon on the scene of their achievement and immediately Ive ba

after his personal view of the actions; he may be therefore called the graphic historian of the French armies. The influence of his character and the fas cinations of his fine intellect on those, who were connected with him in his employment as principal of the French artists, were considerable.

After the fall of Napoleon, M. Denon retired to private life, and is known to derive both amusement and occupation from revising, classing, and arranging that collection of designs and paintings which he had spent fifteen years in forming. From the national importance of these objects it is to be hoped that M. Denon will allow them to be pub lished. But M. Denon's chief occupa tion, at present, is the giving of graphics illustrations of his extensive and valu able cabinet. This work will, forma history of the art of engraving in every age and in every nation. There will be numerous lithographic fac-similes, and the whole will be accompanied by explanatory, historical, and professional notes. We can hardly imagine a more appropriate and worthy termination of a distinguished professional career, than the work in question; and we trust it may be finished under the hands of M. Denon.

Die Urwelt und das Alterthum, erläutert" durch die Naturkunde. The Primitive World and Antiquity explained by Physics. By H F. Link, 1 vol. 8vo.

The author's aim is to represent the primitive world as essentially different to the present world, according to the researches of Blumenbach and Cuvier, to refute the various hypotheses rela five to the supposed revolutions of the globe, and to explain the pretensions which Upper Georgia, Armenia, and Media have to be considered as the place which the human species first iuhabited. In the first part, entitled "The Primitive World," the author treats of the numerous remains of or ganic bodies in the earth, which had

previously attracted the attention of Xenophanes, of Kolophon, and he cites the different opinions relative to this subject, from which he concludes that an entire organic creation, and with it a great many extraordinary forms, unknown to the present world, have pe rished by the inundations of the sea; that every thing is formed and perfect ed by degrees; which inspires the hope of a gradual amelioration of spiritual and corporeal nature,

The second part treats of the propa

gation of organic bodies on the earth, animals as well as plants; and the third, upon the propagation of the human species. In the fourth part, the author

considers language as a decisive mark of propagation; he admits an original language, and demonstrates the origin of the difference of languages. The