Virgin and Child reading 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 Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial 'O’ (O intemerata et in eternum benedicta singularis et incomparabilis) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. 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 Virgin and Child enthroned, the child rolling back the pages of an open book. The gesture was probably derived from Rogier van der Weyden’s Durán Madonna (1435–1438) now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, of which many copies and versions exist. This particular composition would have suited a portrait of the manuscript’s patron. However, instead of a kneeling Prigent, the Archangel Gabriel holds a scroll that reads ‘Ave gracia plena domina’. A domed-lid storage chest is depicted in the lower right corner. An ape or monkey and dog inhabit the lower margin. The monkey was often used as a symbol of lust, sometimes depicted in contrast to Mary’s virtue. The dog is perhaps a sign of her fidelity.