Virgin and Child in a garden 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 men and women emerging from flowers in prayer. On the verso, a prayer to the Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial ‘D’ (Deprecor te domina sancta maria mater dei) 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 Holy Family in an enclosed garden (hortus conclusus). It is a tender family portrait but ripe with symbolism. The sacred nature of the scene is accentuated by the presence of angels, here playing psaltery and portative. The garden setting is a reference to Mary’s role as the gateway to Paradise. The white and red roses in the background are symbols of her purity and humility respectively, the red ones also allude to the child’s future sacrifice. Mary’s humility is also highlighted by the fact that she sits on the ground. Joseph sleeping in a chair not only contrasts Mary’s holiness with his humanity but is also a nod to her perpetual virginity, a fact professed in the accompanying prayer. The Christ Child plucks the strings of the angel’s psaltery with one hand and holds an unidentified piece of fruit, seed or nut in the other.