Virgin and Child 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 an angel and a supplicant in prayer emerging from flowers. On the verso, a prayer to the Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial 'A’ (Ave Maria gratia plena dei genitrix qui es sole et luna pulchrior) 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 Mary as the portentous woman of the sun and moon. The imagery was probably inspired by the first line of the prayer. The Apocalyptic Woman from the Book of Revelation is clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head. She is here crowned as the Queen of Heaven. The Christ Child perhaps holds cherries, signifying his future suffering. The intimacy of their relationship is emphasised by the child’s loving touch, alluding to Mary’s role as the most influential intercessor. They are accompanied by a choir of angels, perhaps cherubim in blue, playing harp, trumpet, psaltery, lute, viol, and portative. The violets in the left margin were perhaps included as a reference to Mary’s humility.