St Christopher 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 St Christopher opens with the illuminated initial ‘S’ (Sancte Christofore martir dei preciose) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. It is one of an unusually large series of forty-seven suffrages, or short prayers to the 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 St Christopher carrying the Christ Child. One of the most popular saints in medieval Europe, he is remembered not for his martyrdom but as a patron of travellers. On account of his size, Christopher was instructed to assist at a dangerous river crossing by a hermit (who stands on the shore holding a lantern). The illustration records the miraculous tale of the saint carrying a child who grew heavier with each step. The movement of his cape, bend of his back and tension in his calf muscles all accentuate the effort of the journey. When they reached the opposite shore, the child revealed himself to be Jesus and told Christopher that he had carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. In the lower margin, an archer emerging from a flower shoots at a saint. Although the imagery suggests St Sebastian, the Golden Legend (a popular collection of saints’ lives) tells us that before Christopher was beheaded he was tied to a stake and shot at by forty archers.