The Annunciation 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 parrot, an unidentified bird, an angel holding a vase and an angel holding a scroll that reads ‘ave gracia plena’. On the verso, beneath rubrics in blue, a prayer to the Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial ‘A’ (Ave Maria Gracia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus) 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 Mary reading. Her piety is emphasised by the setting, an oratory or chapel, and by her action. The archangel swoops down as God the Father watches from above, suggesting this is the moment before the Annunciation. The opening line of the prayer refers to the fruit of her womb.