Deschamps, Paul

Date born: 1885

Place Born:

Date died:  1974

Place died:  

Scholar of Romanesque sculpture and history of fortifications (Crusades). Deschamps was the leader in the nationalistic counter attack to the debate on the origin of the Romanesque. It had been launched by the American A. Kingsley Porter when he posited that pilgrimage and monastic reform explained the stylistic progress of the Romanesque, eminating not from France, but from Spain. The French academy rejected Porter's thesis in favor of their regional hierarchy. Deschamps led the academy's objections by publishing the most virulent corrections (Maxwell) to Porter's evidence. Dechamps was joined by Charles Deshoulières, Charles Dangibeaud and Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis who wrote essays attempting to defend the academy's classification.

Sources:  Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, p. 488; Maxwell, Robert. "Modern Origins of Romanesque Sculpture." in, Rudolf, Conrad, ed. A Companion to Medieval Art : Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006, pp. 338-339.

Bibliography:  Le Krak des chevaliers. 2 vols. 1934.;  La Défense du royaume de Jérusalem. 2 vols. 1939.  La Défense du comté de Tripoli et des principautés d'Antioche. 2 vols. 1971.

Subject's name: Paul Deschamps