UESBORN
238
under Johann Rodde (1582-1601) immorality and
economic decay again increased. Conditions were
still worse dming the disorders caused by the wars of
the seventeenth century. It was not until the Peace
of Westphalia (1648) ttiat any improvement appeared,
and then it was only for a short time, for the wars of
the eighteenth century also laid waste Liesbom so that
at the time of the suppression there were still several
thousand thalers of aeot. The abbey was suppressed
2 May, 1803, and was declared the property of the
Prussian Crown. The Gothic church, rebuilt 1499-
1506, and several monastic buildings, are still
standing.
Studien und MiUeilungen aua dem Benediktiner- tend Zister^ gienaer-orden, XXV (1904), 738-744; Schmitz-Ka.llenbero, Moruuticon West folia (MQnstcr, 1909), 41; Becker. Dw Wirt- achaflaverhdUniaM de» Klofftera Liesbom am Ende dea MiUelaUera (MOnater Dissertation, 1909).
KlEMENS L6FFLER.
Liesbom, Master of, a Westphalian painter, who in 1465 executed an altar-piece of note m the Bene- dictine monastery of Liesoom, founded by Charle- magne. His name is not mentioned by the historian of the monastery, who, however, declares that the Greeks would have looked on him as an artist of the first rank. Even in the fourteenth century the Cologne school of painting found a rival in Westphalia, and in the fifteenth century the latter could oppose the great Liesbom painter to Stephen Lochncr. These two have something in common with each other and with the Van Eycks in Flanders, and both in their work rather reflect the past than look into the future. On the suppression of the monastery in 1807, the chef d'ceuvre of the Westphalian artist was unfortunately sold, divided into parts, and thus scattered. The principal parts, some of tnese purely fragmentary, are now to be found in the National Gallery of London, in the MUnster Museum, and in private hands. A fair idea of the altar-piece may be formed from a copy in a church at Lilnen. The altar had not folding wings, the painting being placed side by side on a long panel: in the centre was the Redeemer on the Crass, while Mary stood on one side with Cosmas and Damian, and on the other Jolm, Scholastica, and Benedict. Four angels caught the blood which poured from the wounds. The touchingly beautiful head of the Sav- iour is still preserved, as are the busts of the saints, whose countenances are so full of character and no- bility, and several angels \^ith golden chalices. The background is also golden. Four scenes chosen from Sacred History were reproduced on the sides.
The painting of the Annunciation represents a double apartment with vaulted ceiling, the front room being represented as an oratory and the other as a sleeping chamber: the marble floor, the damask cur- tains which surround the bed, a wardrobe, a bench, some vases, and writing mat«rial,all are carefully drawn and with due regard for perspective; the arched door- way and the partition wall are adorned with figures of Prophets and Christ, and a representation of the world. The window looks out on a landscape. The Blessed Virgin^ clad in a blue mantle over a robe of
gold brocade, is seen in the front room turning from er prie-dieu towards the angel, who, richlv robed and bearing in his left hand a sceptre, delivers his greeting. Of the Nativity group, there still remain five l>eauti- ful angels, who kneel on the ground around the efful- gent form of the Child: there also remain two busts of male figures which were probably part of this scene. Of the '* Adoration of the Magi " there is but one frag- ment left. The " Presentation in the Temple " shows a venerable priest, to whom the Mother presents her Child laid on a white cloth: three witnesses sur- round the priest, while the mother is attendee! >)y two maidservants carrying the doves. Several panels have been lost. The Liesbom artist is not as skilfully teah'stic as van Eyck, but his genius for delineation
becomes quite apparent when one obeervee the no-
bility of expression about the mouths of his figures, the
almond-shaped eyes, the looee curly ludr, and the
natural folds of the garments. But his most charac-
teristic claim to fame lies in the purity of his taste and
in his ideal conception of a sacr^ subject. The great
master's influence is evident in other works, but no
second work can be attributed directly to him.
NoBDHOPF, Die ChroninUn dea Kloatera Lieabom (MOnater, 1866); FuRSTER. Oeach. der deutachen Kunst, pt. II (Leipsif, 1853); Janitschxk, Geach. der deutachen Maleret (Berlin, 1890).
C. Gl£TlCANN.
Liessies, a Benedictine monastery near Aveanes, in the Diocese of Cambrai, France (Nora), founded iU>out the middle of eighth century and dedicated to St. Lambert. The monastery appears to have been de- stroyed twice in the wars of the ensuing centuries, and was only finally established about the year 1110 by Theodoric of Avesnes and his wife Ada. From this time its continued history is on record, but without any fullness of detail; a list of the abbots may be found in " Galiia Christiana ". The chief glory of Liessies is the famous Louis de Blois, who became a monk there at the early age of fourteen. In 1530 he was made abbot and at once inaugurated his well known series of reforms, which were rendered necessary by the gradual decline from strict monastic observance (see Blosius). After the death of Abbot Blosius the next six abbots seem to have maintained the high state of observance inaugurated by him, but the forty-first ab- bot, Lambert Bouillon, was of a different type. He is said to have lived extravagantly, exhausted the mon- astery exchequer with lawsuits, and diverted the rev- enues to the advantage of his nephews and nieces. The illustrious F6nelon, then Archbishop of Cambrai, accordingly held a visitation of the abbey in the vear 1702 and left certain instructions of which the abbot circulated a largely fictitious account. The arch- bishop, however having secured the changes he de- sired, refrained from any public disavowal of the ab- bot's declaration. After Abbot Bouillon's death in 1708 the existence of the monastery continued smoothly until the final suppression of rehgious houses in France. In 1791 the la!st abbot. Dom Mark Ver- dier, and his community signed a declaration, as or- dered by the decree of 14 October, 1790, in which they protested their earnest desire to remain in religion, but the suppression followed nevertheless. The property of the monastery was sold in 1791 and 1792 and tfaie church pillaged and destroyed. The valuable paint- ings for which the abbey was famous, which included a series of "religious founders", were burned or dis- persed, a few being still to be seen in neighbouring churches.
Chronicon Ladienae. in Reiffenburo, Mon, HxeL Namwr., VII, 393; Ocdlia Christiana, III (Paris, 1725). 123-126; Ma- billon. Annalea Bened., II. 190, 278; V. 522; Binbt. Abr(ig4 dea vifa dea principaux fondateura dea religiona ae VBgHee, repr^ aentez dans le chaeur de Vabbaie de a. Lambert de Lieaaiea .... (/\jitwcrp, 1034). Blosiu'%, A Benedictine of the sixteenth om- turj/f tr. LovAT (London. 1878).
G. Roger Hudlestdn.
Life ^Gk. r<^; Lat. vUa; Fr. La vie; Ger. ZXm Ltben; vital prmciple; Gk. ^vx^; Lat. anima, via vitalis; Ger. Ijehenskraft). — ^The enigma of life is still one of the two or three most difficult problems that face both scientist and philosopher, and notwithstanding the progress of knowledge during the past twenty-three hundred years we do not seem to have advanced ap- preciably beyond the position of Aristotle in regard to the main issue. Wliat are its characteristic manifes- tations? WTiat are its chief forms? What is the in- ner nature of the source of vital activity? How has life arisen? Such are among the chief questions whichpresent themselves with regard to this subject.
I. History. — A. Greek Period, — ^The early Greek philosophers for the most part looked on movement as
