"Essays on Annamese Art" by scholar Louis Bezacier collects seven talks into a book with pictures made at the Louis Finot Museum (now the National Museum of History) in Hanoi , under the auspices of the Friends of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient.
Louis Bezacier studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1926 and took architectural lessons at the Defrasse-Madeline atelier from 1931-1932.
He arrived in Hanoi on October 3, 1935, taking on the role of preserving works in Bac Ky, then in Central Vietnam, a geographical area more bustling than Bac Ky including most of the territory of the old Champa kingdom.
As soon as he arrived in Vietnam, Louis Bezacier undertook the restoration of one of the most beautiful structures in Bac Ky, Ninh Phuc Pagoda (also known as But Thap Pagoda), in Bac Ninh province.
He also conducted excavations to find traces of previous structures. By 1945, he had devoted most of his time and energy to ancient civil and religious architecture such as pagodas, tombs, Le Dynasty palaces, covered bridges, etc. in the Red River Delta and Thanh Hoa province.
Louis Bezacier also restored a brick stupa in Binh Son, Vinh Yen province, dating from the 11th century. He was the one who identified a new style: Dai La art (11th-12th century). In addition, Louis Bezacier was also responsible for restoring many Champa structures in the Ly Son relic site.
Some typical works of Louis Bezacier: L'Architecture religieuse au Tonkin (Religious architecture in Tonkin, 1938), L'art et les constructions militaires annamites (Art and military constructions of Annam, 1941), Le panthéon bouddhique des pagodes du Tonkin (Buddhist shrines in pagodas in Tonkin, 1943), Essais sur l'art annamite (Essays on Annamese art, 1943), L'art vietnamien (Vietnamese art, 1955).
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