Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/414

 396 L E B L E C The only work with which the name of Le Beau continues to be associated is his Histoirc du lias-Empire, en commenqant a Constant in le Grand, in 22 vols. 12mo (Paris, 1756-1779), being a continuation of Rollin s Histoirc JRomaine and Crevier s Histoirc dcs Empcreurs. Its usefulness arises entirely from the fact of its being a faithful resume of the Byzantine historians, for Le Beau had no originality or artistic power of his own. Five volumes were added by Ameilhon (1781-1811), which brought the work down to the fall of Constantinople. A later edition, under the care of Saint-Martin and afterwards of Brosset, has had the benefit of careful revision throughout, and has received considerable addi tions from Oriental sources. LEBEDIN&quot;, a district town of the Kharkoff government in European Russia, 102 miles north-west of the govern ment town, near the Olshana and Buravka, two small tributaries of the Dnieper. Its population has increased from 15,137 in 1863 to 17,019 in 1879. There are four annual fairs, and a good trade in grain and cattle. Lebedin dates from the middle of the 17th century. In 1709 it was the headquarters of the operations of Peter the Great against Mazeppa, and the scene of the execution of nine hundred of that hetman s followers, whose common grave is still marked by a mound 70 feet square. LEBEDYAN, a district town of the Tamboff government in European Russia, situated 132 miles west of Tamboff, on the bluffs of the right bank of the Don. It possesses a modern cathedral (Kazanskii) and several churches of architectural and antiquarian interest ; and in the imme diate vicinity is the great Eletskii Troitskii monastery, which under the name Yablonovoi Pustuin was founded in 1621. The prosperity of the town is closely bound up with that of its three annual fairs, of which the first two continue for a month and the last for six days, many of the inhabitants deriving the better part of their income from the rents paid by their merchant visitors. The chief fair is held near the monastery, and is known as the Troitskaya. The population, returned in 1863 as 5849 (exclusive of the suburbs, with 3046), was G010 in 1879. Lebedyan probably dates from the 15th century. It was reckoned a town in the beginning of the 17th ; and about 1678 it became the centre of a district. LEBRIJA, or LEBRIXA, a town of Spain, in the pro vince of Seville, near the left bank of the eastern arm of the Guadalquivir, and on the eastern edge of the flat fluvial tract known as &quot; Las Marismas,&quot; formed by that river. It is 44 miles by rail from Seville, which lies north by east, and about 50 miles from Cadiz. The climate is somewhat unfavourably affected by the proximity of the marshes ; but the sierra beneath which it lies protects the town from the hot easterly winds, and it enjoys during the heats of summer the pleasant alternation of land and sea breezes. The parish church, the only building of any note, is a somewhat imposing structure in a variety of styles Moorish, Gothic, Romanesque dating from the 14th to the 16th century ; it contains some early specimens of the carving of Alonso Cano. The manufactures, which are unimportant, consist chiefly of bricks, tiles, and earthen ware, for which a useful clay is found in the neighbour hood ; there is some trade in the grain, wine, and oil of the surrounding district. The population in December 1877 was 12,864. Lebrija is the ISTabrissa or Nebrissa, surnamed Veneria, of the Romans ; by Silius Italicns (iii. 393), who associates it with the worship of Dionysus, the name is derived from vt&pls. Nebrishah was a strong and populous place during the period of Moorish domination ; it was taken by St Ferdinand in 1249, but again lost, and became finally subject to the Castilian crown only under Alphonso the Wise in 1264. It was the birthplace of Elio Antonio de Lebrija or Nebrija (1444-1522), better known as Ne- brissensis, one of the most important leaders in the revival of learn ing in Spain, the tutor of Queen Isabella, and a collaborateur with Jimenez in the preparation of the Cotnplutensian Polyglott. LE BRUN, CHARLES (1619-1690), French painter, was born at Paris 24th February 1619, and attracted the notice of Chancellor Se guier, who placed him at the age of eleven in the studio of Vouet. At fifteen he received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu in the execution of which he dis played an ability which obtained the generous commenda tions of Poussin himself, in whose company Le Brun started for Rome in 1642. In Rome he remained four years in the receipt of a pension due to the liberality of the chancellor. On his return to Paris Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom the celebrated Superintendent Fouquet was the most important. Employed at Vaux le Vicomte, Ls Brun, who had an immense amount of worldly tact, ingratiated himself with Mazarin, then secretly pitting Colbert against Fouquet. Colbert also promptly recognized Le Brim s powers of organization, and attached him to his interests. Together they founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), and the Academy of France at Rome (1666), and gave a new development to the industrial arts. In 1660 they established the Gobelins, which at first was a great school for the manufacture, not of tapestries only, but of every class of furniture required in the royal palaces. Commanding the industrial arts through the Gobelins, of which he was director, and the whole artist world through the Academy in which he successively held every post Le Brun imprinted his own character on all that was pro duced in France during his lifetime, and gave a direction to the national tendencies which endured even after his death. The nature of his emphatic and pompous talent was in harmony with the taste of the king, who, full of admiration at the decorations designed by Le Brun for his triumphal entry into Paris (1660), commissioned him to execute a series of subjects from the history of Alexander. The first of these, Alexander and the Family of Darius, so delighted Louis XIV. that lie at once ennobled Le Brun (December 1662), who was also created first painter to his majesty with a pension of 12,000 livres, the same amount as he had yearly received in the service of the magnifi cent Fouquet. From this date all that was done in the royal palaces was directed by Le Brun. The works of the gallery of Apollo in the Louvre were interrupter! in 1677 when he accompanied the king to Flanders (on his return from Lille he painted several compositions in the Chateau of St Germains), and finally for they remained unfinished at his death by the vast labours of Versailles, where he reserved for himself the Halls of War and Peace, the Ambassadors Staircase, and the Great Gallery, other artists being forced to accept the position of his assistants. At the death of Colbert, Louvois, who succeeded him in the department of public works, showed no favour to Le Brun, and in spite of the king s continued support he felt a bitter change in his position. This contributed to the illness which on 22d February 1690 ended in his death in the Gobelins. Besides his gigantic labours at Versailles and the Louvre, the number of his works for religious corpora tions and private patrons is incredible. He modelled and engraved with much facility, and, in spite of the heaviness and poverty of drawing and colour, his extraordinary activity and the vigour of his conceptions justify his claim to fame. Nearly all his compositions have been reproduced by celebrated engravers. LECCE, one of most important cities of Southern Italy, and the administrative centre of the province of Lecce (formerly Terra d Otranto), is situated on the railway between Brindisi and Otranto, about 8 miles from the coast of the Adriatic. Down to the middle of the 18th I century it was defended by regular fortifications constructed in the 16th century, and it still preserves some of the gate ways, as well as a triumphal arch erected in honour of the entry of Charles V. Among its public buildings are the cathedral (dedicated to St Orontius, traditional first bishop of the city, whose statue, on a lofty column, adorns the principal square), the old convent of the Celestines now