Return from the cemetery from the Coëtivy Hours

Dunois Master, attributed to

Folio with three-quarter page miniature from a book of hours attributed to the Dunois Master, written in Latin and French in a bastarda script, made in Paris and dated 1443–1445. It was commissioned by Prigent de Coëtivy (1399?–1450) on the occasion of his marriage to Marie de Rais (1429–1457). Removed from the bound volume between 1933 and 1960. The Litany is followed by the Office of the Dead, read immediately before the requiem or funeral Mass, with Vespers read on the night before and Matins and Lauds on the day of the Mass and burial. In this manuscript, the Office is unusually illuminated with not one but six miniatures. Matins for the Office concludes on the recto, illuminated by a dog chasing a deer in the lower margin. On the verso, Lauds for the Office opens with the illuminated initial 'M' (Miserere mei deus secundum magnam misericordiam tuam) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the return to the city of mourners (mostly aristocrats and dignitaries) from the burial. The west facade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame is visible in the background, placing us firmly in Paris. Additional black-clad members from the procession, including a group of women, inhabit the margins.