Virgin and Child in a garden 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 ‘Obsecro te’ prayer concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margin with the overpainted single charge of Alain de Coëtivy supported by a lion and an angel. On the verso the ‘O intemerata’ (O unspotted) prayer opens with the illuminated initial 'O’ (O intemerata et in eternum benedicta singularis et incomparabilis) painted with red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. Together with ‘Obsecro te’ this prayer was one of the most popular additions to books of hours. ‘O intermerata’ enumerates the glories of Christ and asks the Virgin to intercede. It is one of a series of twenty-six prayers to the Virgin Mary in this section of the manuscript. The great many devotions and miniatures dedicated to her is rather unusual. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Madonna and Child in an enclosed garden (hortus conclusus). The setting is a reference to Mary’s role as the second Eve and Christ as the new Adam. All three persons of the Trinity are present, God above, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and Jesus as a small boy picking flowers with the help of two angels. The purple blossoms are probably violets to complete a trio of flowers associated with the Virgin Mary, with white lilies and red roses growing along the trellis. Bernard of Clairvaux called Mary ‘the violet of humility, lily of chastity and rose of charity’. Seated upon the ground also suggests her humility, reading her piety and the crown her role as Queen of Heaven. The blue cornflowers in the left margin were associated with the Egyptian god Osiris and later came to be symbolic of Christ’s death and resurrection. Images of the Virgin and Child often reference his ultimate sacrifice.