Last Judgement 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. A prayer to God the Creator concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margins with a dog and pheasant below and a bird (goldfinch) eating a strawberry on the right. This is followed on the verso by a prayer to Christ the Judge opening with the illuminated initial 'B' (Benignissime fili dei ihesu christe index novissime) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Last Judgement. Jesus sits on a rainbow in a mandorla surrounded by angels carrying the Instruments of the Passion: pincers, nails, column, whips, cross, lance and sponge. Below, the dead climb from their graves, one still wrapped in a shroud.