The Representation of World War One in the War Memorials Paintings in the Pays de la Loire Parishes

The parish war memorials are today a forgotten element in the Great War commemorative heritage. Their location inside churches, the absence of archives and their serial production explain the low interest in these monuments. However about sixty painted memorials stand out from this mass production and show the special interest of the artists and sponsors for an original way of remembrance. These works bear testimony to the way a community wanted to give sense to the commitment and the self-sacrifice of its soldiers and to celebrate their memory. The iconographic choices made by these artists and sponsors in order to show the war or its suffering in the church memorials are a combination of themes of sacrifice, consolation and hope in which Christ and the Virgin occupy the greatest place, alongside new allegorical images created for this occasion.