Prigent de Coëtivy praying and St Michael slaying a demon 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 prayers in the following section are dedicated to God the Father, Son, Trinity, St Michael and Holy Cross. Beneath rubrics in red, a prayer attributed to St Augustine and address to Jesus Christ opens with the illuminated initial 'D' (Deus propicius esto michi peccatori ut sis custos mei) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and probably depicts Prigent de Coëtivy in prayer, alongside St Michael slaying a demon. The man wears a golden robe, across which falls the long tail of his hat (chaperon), resembling the black and gold bars of the Coëtivy coat of arms. Prigent kneels before an open book but looks toward God who is surrounded by red seraphim. The scroll, like a speech bubble, reiterates the first line of the prayer below. God looks not toward our patron but rather to the archangel, who impales the devil. The association of Prigent with St Michael suggests a particular devotion to the archangel, perhaps as a guardian as the prayer requests (custos mei). The cult of St Michael was centred on the island monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, relatively close to the Coëtivy lands in Brittany. The margins are inhabited by a warrior-angel battling demons, a pheasant and a choir of angels singing from a codex and playing lute and pipe. The angels are not included on the verso, replaced by a single bird, resembling a goldfinch.