Group of Saints 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 red, a prayer to all saints opens with the illuminated initial ‘B’ (Beati estis sanctis et sancta dei omnes qui meruisti) 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 a group eighteen saints, many represented only by a glimpse their halo, with three additional saints in the margins. Groups of saints are often used to represent heaven, the diaper-patterned background adding to the sense of an otherworldly space. Several saints read or hold books to signify their piety, the crowns suggest royal birth. Saints John and Stephen are identified by their poisoned chalice and stone respectively. Catherine’s wheel lies in the foreground beside a sword which could relate to any one of a number of beheaded martyrs. A bird is added to the upper margin on the verso.