Holy Family 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 bird and two mermen playing pipe and psaltery. On the verso, a prayer to the Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial ‘O’ (Obsecro te Maria mater summe benignitatis) 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 Nursing Madonna. Mary breastfeeding the infant emphasises their earthly relationship and alludes to the fact that both represent sources of the living water. She is assisted by the unnamed midwife or Salome who both appear in the story of the nativity in the Protoevangelium of James. Joseph cooks over a fire, juxtaposing his humanity with Mary’s holiness. An abbreviated version of the Annunciation to the Shepherds is depicted in the background.