Martyrdom of St Barnabas 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 Saint Barnabas opens with the illuminated initial ‘P’ (Paulus et barnabas demorabantur antiochie docentes) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament (much of the gold is lost). It is one of an unusually large series of forty-seven suffrages, or short prayers to saints, arranged hierarchically. The section opens with a number of prefatory prayers, followed by the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins. The text refers to the mission of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch while the miniature depicts the Martyrdom of St Barnabas in Cyprus. According to the Golden Legend, a popular collection of hagiographies (saints’ lives), an angry mob in the city of Salamis bound a cord around the saint’s neck and dragged him from the city where he was burned (here stabbed). It is one of the few miniatures painted with a different palette to suggest night-time. The muted blues and greys are punctuated by splashes of red and gold for blood, torches and heavenly light. In the lower margin two putti play with a wheelbarrow. This is perhaps a reference to another incident recorded in the Golden Legend where Barnabas witnessed men and women running naked through a town to celebrate a festival. This drew such anger in the saint that it caused part of the temple to fall and kill many. A sorcerer named Elymas who had refused him entrance to the same temple roused the people of the city of Salamis against Barnabas, leading to his death.