Crucifixion 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 concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margin with a peacock and two soldiers emerging from flowers. On the verso, beneath rubrics in red, a prayer to the Virgin Mary as a grieving mother opens with the illuminated initial 'S’ (Stabat mater dolorosa, Iuxta crucem lacrimosa) 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 Crucifixion. This abbreviated version of the scene includes only the Virgin Mary in prayer and John the Evangelist holding his gospel. The peacock in the left margin is a symbol of the Resurrection.