Death kneeling before Life 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 debate between Life and Death in French opens with the illuminated initial ‘I’ (Je vie royne couronnee) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The debates between Life and Death are some of the numerous additional texts included in this manuscript. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Death kneeling before Life. Death appears as a somewhat fleshy skeleton with two arrows. Life is personified as a Queen, complete with ermine-lined robe, sceptre and crown atop a double-horned headdress (escoffion). The room seems to float in a sea of blue, separating it from the natural world. Life and Death appear again in the lower margin, with a parrot on the left and a peacock on the right. The peacock is a symbol of Christ’s Resurrection. The parrot is unfinished on the verso.