Deathbed 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. Beneath rubrics in red, a prayer to the Virgin Mary at the time of death in French opens with the illuminated initial ‘O’ (O tres certaine esperance dame et deffenderesse) painted with 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 an old woman on her deathbed. She is attended by two women, one wearing a wimple and helping the dying lady to hold a candle. A demon behind the bed lays in wait to drag her soul into hell. Luckily, the Virgin Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven and surrounded by red seraphim, watches from the window, ready to welcome her to heaven. The margins are inhabited by a bird and the quartered arms of Prigent de Coëtivy supported by an angel and lion. The overpainting on the shield remains intact on the verso, showing only the single charge of Alain de Coëtivy, Prigent’s brother and heir.