The Lamentation 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 Jesus Christ concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margins by a vase of flowers, butterflies and an archer hunting a heron with an eel. On the verso, beneath rubrics in blue, a prayer to the Passion of Jesus Christ opens with the illuminated initial 'P' (Per multitudinem angustarium quibus angustiatus erat cor) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Lamentation. The body of Jesus is surrounded by John the Evangelist in prayer, his mother Mary embracing his hand, and Mary Magdalene with a container of ointment kissing his feet. A group of three grieving female disciples kneel behind his body. To the right, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea hold the burial shroud. The two thieves hang from crosses in the background. The open sarcophagus in the lower margin is a reference to the Resurrection.