Group of Virgins 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). The folio was removed from the bound volume between 1933 and 1960. Beneath rubrics in blue, a prayer to all virgin martyrs opens with the illuminated initial ‘I’ (In celis gaudent virgines et cantant canticum) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. It is one of a series of forty-seven suffrages, or short prayers dedicated to the saints. 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 nine virgin martyrs, with two additional saints in the lower margin. Many hold the palm of a martyr, some wear crowns signifying their royal birth, some hold or read from books as a sign of piety. St Catherine is uniquely identifiable with her wheel. A small nimbed lamb in the foreground symbolises the Lamb of God. Images with groups of saints were a common means of representing heaven. A bird (possibly a goldfinch) sits next to the decorated initial, on the verso it is gilded but unfinished. A hound or fox and hare are also added to the upper margin.