Group of Apostles 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 apostles opens with the illuminated initial ‘I’ (Isti sunt viri sancti quos elegit dominus) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament (most of the gold and much of the blue are 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 miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts a group of eleven apostles, many represented only by the tops of their haloes. Two saints hold books as a sign of piety. A third figure holds a knife, an attribute of a writer, and may be intended represent the evangelist Mark who holds the same tool in the lower margin of f.207r and in the main painting on f.17v. The gold and coloured diaper pattern above situates the saints in an otherworldly space. Two additional apostles appear in the lower margin and are the only figures indisputably identifiable. Peter holds his key and John the poisoned chalice.