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Medieval Wall Painting
in the
English Parish Church

Fring, Norfok (†Norwich) C.13?

The Annunciation

The Annunciation, Fring, Norfolk

A high quality example of the subject, one of very few still remaining in Norfolk. It is comparable in elegance to the example at Tarrant Crawford in Dorset, and, like that example, it is presented in an illusionistic ornamental frame, in this case an oval mandorla, invariably a sign of fine work.

Expensive colours have been used too; there is quite extensive use of green pigment on the robes of both Gabriel and the Virgin and some light blue just outside the mandorla at the top left. Gabriel stands at the left holding a prominent whitish scroll, his head inclined towards the Virgin on the right. Her own robe is remarkable for the complex folds of her elegantly draped red mantle, very competently painted.

Also at Fring are a St Christopher; blue/green pigment has been used again for a painted figure in a carved niche which MR James thought might be St Faith, and there is a further figure in a window splay, almost certainly another saint, but again impossible to identify now.

Website for Fring church