Louis Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867) et l'histoire de l'art

"Louis Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867) and art history", by Françoise Largier The career of Louis Hippolyte Lebas followed a trajectory that began and ended at the École des Beaux-Arts : he studied under Vaudoyer and Percier, travelled to Italy, was awarded commissions by the administration, became a member of the Institut de France and finally succeeded Huyot as professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. His classical and rationalist inclinations are manifest in his church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette and the prison of La Petite-Roquette, both of which reveal his taste for antiquity and his acceptance of modern design principles. As a historian of architecture, his principal work is his series of lectures delivered at the École des Beaux-Arts between 1840 and 1863. Lebas' objective was to teach the architecture of all periods and places based on the methods developed by Winckelmann and Quatremère de Quincy. Three themes representative of his approach to history are thoroughly studied here : (1) the search for physical and moral causes, (2) the search for origins, and (3) the evolution of the vault.