MIG. 
enormous; bulky.—They fank as lead in the mighty 
waters. Exodus. —Giants of mighty bone and bold ein- 
prife. Milton's ParadiJ'e Loft. —Excellent; of fuperior emi¬ 
nence.—Lydiate excell’d the mighty Scaliger and Selden. 
Erhard. —The mighty mhfter fmil’d. Dryden. —Forcible ; 
efficacious.—Great is truth, and mighty above all things. 
Eflras. —Exprefling or implying power.—If the mighty 
works which have been done in thee had been done in 
Sodom, it would have repented. Matth. —Important; 
momentous : 
I’ll fing of heroes and of kings, 
In mighty numbers mighty things. Cowley. 
It is often ufed to exprefs power, bulk, or extent, in a 
fenfe of terror or cenfure.—There arofe a mighty famine 
in the land. Luke. —Tire enemies of religion are but brafs 
and iron ; their mifchiefs mighty, but their materials mean. 
Delany. 
MI'GHTY, adv. In a great degree. Not to he ufed hut 
i\ very low language: 
Lord of his new hypothefis he reigns : 
He reigns; how long ? till fome ufurper rife. 
And he too mighty thoughtful, mighty wife. 
Studies new lines. Prior. 
MIGLE'RE (La), a town of France, in the department 
of the Po, on the Stura : eight miles fouth of Cerefola, and 
twenty-four north-north-weft of Turin. 
MIGLIA'JO, f A weight and meafure by which oil 
is fold at Venice : the weight being jooolb. the meafure 
170 gallons Engliffi. 
MIGLIANTCA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra : 
feven miles eaft of Civita di Chieti. 
MIGLIA'NO, a town of Naples, in Principato Ultra : 
fifteen miles north-north-eaft of Conza, 
MIGLIA'NO, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Lower Po : fifteen miles eaft of Ferrara. 
MIGLIONI'CO, a town of Naples, in Bafilicata: nine 
fniles fouth-weft of Matera. 
MIGNA'NO, a town of Naples, in Lavora: eleven 
miles north of Sezza. 
MIGNA'RD (Nicholas), a French painter of reputa¬ 
tion, born in 1608 at Troyes, was the ion of an officer in 
the army. An early difpofition for the art of defign 
caufed him to be placed as pupil with the beft painter in 
Troyes, whom he foon iurpaffed. He afterwards im¬ 
proved himfelf by the ftudy of the antiques and paintings 
.at the palace of Fontainebleau; and then, viflting Italy, 
palled two years in that country. He returned to Avig¬ 
non, at which city he had diftinguiftied himfelf by his per¬ 
formances in his way to Rome, and had contracted a ma¬ 
trimonial engagement. His refidence there for a number 
of years has caufed him to be known by the name of 
Mignard of Avignon, by way of diftinclion from his bro¬ 
ther, Mignard the Roman. When cardinal Mazarine, in 
1660, accompanying Louis XIV. in his journey to meet 
the Infante of Spain, palled through Avignon, he lat for 
liis portrait to Mignard, who obtained fo much reputation 
by the work, that he was invited to court. For fome 
years he was much employed as a portrait-painter by the 
royal family and perfons of rank ; nor did he negleft the 
higher branch of the art. Several confiderable hiftorical 
pieces came from his hand, and fome of the apartments in 
the Tuilleries were decorated with his deligns. He was 
admitted into the Academy of Painting, of which he be¬ 
came profeffor, and at length director. He died in 1668. 
This mailer had a poetical call of invention, but without 
much fire or originality. He coloured agreeably, and 
compofed with harmony : the airs of his heads are grace¬ 
ful, but the want of expreffion renders his pieces fiome- 
what inlipid. Many of his portraits and fome of his hif¬ 
torical pieces have been engraved. He himfelf etched 
lome plates from Annibal Caracci. 
MIGNA'RD (Peter), called the Roman , an eminent 
French painter, brother to the preceding, was born at 
MIG ♦ 351 
Troyes in 161 <y. He was originally deltined to the medi¬ 
cal profeflion ; but his father, finding that, when he ac¬ 
companied his mailer in his vifits, he employed himfelf in 
Iketching' the figures of the patients and nurles, rather 
than in itudying dileafes, judicioully removed him to the 
fchool of a painter at Bourges. He then received the in- 
ftruCtion of Vouet at Paris; but quitted his lchool at an 
early period, and went to Rome, anxious to fee and ftudy 
the works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and the Caracci. 
He there lived with Du Frefnoy, and they ftudied toge¬ 
ther the noble works of art which that city prelented 
to them; they alfo travelled together to Florence and 
Venice, that they might leave no fource of improvement 
unlought which the extraordinary talents of their great 
predecellbrs had prepared and left for their ftudy and 
imitation. The refidence of Mignard at Rome, which he 
prolonged for twenty-two years, and the ftyle he acquired 
of compofition and drawing by the imitation of the Ro¬ 
man mailers, together, obtained for him the appellation 
of the Roman; but his ftyle of defign favours more of the 
flutter of the French fchool than of the chafte iimplicity 
of Raphael and the beft of the Romans. 
Mignard enjoyed a full lhare of favour and fortune 
during his life. He painted portraits of the popes Ur¬ 
ban VIII. and Alexander VII. together with thole of fe- 
veral princes and cardinals, and a doge of Venice. He- 
married the daughter of an architect at Rome, who, being 
young and beautiful, ferved him as a model for his god- 
delfes. After a refidence of twenty-two years in Italy, he 
was recalled to Paris by Louis XIV. with whom he be¬ 
came the favourite artill. He painted that monarch tera 
different times, and plealed him as much by his flattery 
as his pencil. At the laft time of the king’s fitting, lie 
laid to Mignard, “ You find me aged.” “It is true, 
lire,” he replied, “ I fee the traces of fome more cam¬ 
paigns on your majefty’s forehead.” Almoll all the no¬ 
bles of the French court followed the example of their 
lovereign, and were painted by Mignard. His ftyle of 
execution in thefe portraits is wrought up with all the 
falfe talle and pompous parade which diftinguilhed that 
period of the French nation ; when parade palled current 
for true lplendour; what was only fpecious or lubtle, was 
received as ufeful and learned ; and bomball aflumed the 
ftation due only to true dignified iimplicity. His pictures 
are all flutter; every thing feems in motion; even when 
the fcene is laid in a clofe room, the draperies are flyino- 
about as in a high wind. The aClions of his figures are 
in aflumed airs, like bad actors ; and the colouring of his 
pictures, though frelh and vigorous, is not true, but 
teinted, and reminds the obferver of the pallet. With 
thefe defective points in his character as an artill, Mignard 
is not unworthy of regard. His drawing is correCt; his 
arrangement of parts is ingenious; and his invention 
fertile. He contrived to make his pictures'ornamental, 
and is the beft portrait-painter of the French lchool. 
One of his greatell works was the eupola of Vai-de-Grace 
which he painted in frefco with a vail number of figures 
of faints of large dimeniions. Moliere wrote a poem in 
praile of this piece, as a return for his portrait prelented 
by the artill. Mignard was in habits of friendlhip with 
the principal French wits of his time, and was generally 
beloved for his focial qualities; but a rivalry prevailed 
between him and Charles le Brun, attended with mutual 
diflike. The king, in 1687, ennobled Mignard; and, 
after the death of le Brun in 1690, he had his places of 
firft painter, and director of manufactures, and of director 
and chancellor of the academy. He died in 1695, at the 
age of 85, praClifing his art to the laft. 
MI'GNE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Fienne : three miles north of Poitiers. 
MIGN'IARD, adj. [ mignard , Fr.] Soft; dainty- 
pretty.—Thofe foft migniard handlings. B. Jonfon. 5 
MIGN'ON, or Min'jon (Abraham), a celebrated painter 
of flowers and fruit, was born at Frankfort in j 6 39. He 
was placed as a pupil with James Morel* a flower-painter 
1 y 5 $ 
