Mesnil-Mauger (Le) (Canton of Mézidon-Canon, Calvados) Church of Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglais

   The church of Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglais rises within the confines of the village in the Viette valley. This is a very simple edifice built of limestone at the end of the 12^th century. It is above all remarkable in a set of frescos that stand out on a considerable thickness of lime. The iconographical themes are taken from the Scriptures presenting characters in warrior's costume from the end of the 12^th or early 13^th century contemporary with the recumbent statue of a knight which survives in the choir: The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the Last Supper, the Adoration of Magi or Nativity. The drawings are naive with dominant use of red, ochre, yellow, blue and black.

Bibliography

- Caumont, Arcisse (de). - Statistique monumentale du Calvados,III, arrondissement de Lisieux, 1867, réed. Joseph Floch, 1978, p. 492 à 501
- Musset, Lucien. - Normandie romane, I : la Basse-Normandie, Zodiaque, La Pierre-Qui-Vire, 1975, p. 301-302
- Noël en Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n°64, p. 44
- Régnier, Louis. "L’église de Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglais", Bulletin Monumental, 1903
- Les siècles romans en Basse-Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 92, Printemps 1985, p. 138-139