Stoning of St Stephen 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 Stephen opens with the illuminated initial ‘A’ (Ave semor stephane ave martir paradoxe) 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 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 the Stoning of St Stephen. He was one of the first seven deacons of the apostles and is shown wearing a deacon’s dalmatic. He is also considered the first Christian martyr and his death is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. An angry mob gathers stones both within the frame and in the margins, as the kneeling saint prays and turns his head toward a vision of Christ. Strawberries, found in the lower margin, symbolise the blood of the martyr. The trifoliate leaves represent the Trinity.