Full Name: Deschamps, Paul
Other Names:
- Paul Deschamps
Gender: male
Date Born: 1885
Date Died: 1974
Home Country/ies: France
Subject Area(s): Crusader (style), Medieval (European), Romanesque, and sculpture (visual works)
Institution(s): École Nationale des Chartes
Overview
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 François Deshoulières, Charles Dangibeaud and Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis who wrote essays attempting to defend the academy’s classification.
Selected 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.
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.
Contributors: Lee Sorensen