The Anointing of Jesus 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 concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margins by a butterfly, birds, a wolf chasing sheep and a figure with lance. On the verso, beneath rubrics in red, a prayer to opens with the illuminated initial 'M' (Miserator et misericors paciens et multum misericors domine deus) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Anointing of Jesus Christ. Jesus, surrounded by a group of apostles, sits at a dressed table blessing a cup of wine and piece of bread. A servant enters the room with a plate of food. The woman kneeling on the floor washes Jesus’ feet with her tears, dries them with her hair and rubs them with perfume. While a similar story appears in all four gospels, she is unnamed in Mark and Matthew, identified only as a sinful woman from Bethany in Luke, and called Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus in John. These episodes are often conflated and the woman interpreted as Mary Magdalene. The alabaster jar of ointment is a common attribute of the saint. She appears again with her jar in the left margin, and in the lower margin Jesus washes Peter’s feet, an event associated with the Last Supper.