Christ in the Papal Tiara 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 the Passion of Jesus Christ concludes on the recto, illuminated in the lower margin by a peacock and figure emerging from a flower. On the verso, beneath rubrics in blue, a prayer to Jesus Christ opens with the illuminated initial 'D' (Domine ihesu christe, cum veneris in regnum tuum) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts Christ wearing the papal tiara. Groups of figures on either side of him turn away. The use of the papal tiara may suggest a reference to Matthew 16.17-19, that those who are loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In the passage Jesus designates Peter as the ‘rock’ of his church, granting him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Papal supremacy is derived from this verse. The men around Jesus wear a variety of headgear to evoke both Eastern exoticism and the biblical past. The presence of the distinctive Jewish hat (pileus cornutus) suggests an element anti-Jewish sentiment based on the medieval accusation that Jews were unable to see the ‘truth’. Additional figures emerge from flowers in the margins.