Trinity 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, the Seven Articles of Faith in French opens with an initial ‘O’ (O glorieuse trinity une essence) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Trinity. The three persons of the Trinity are represented by got with a long white beard, Jesus with a short brunette beard, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. They are seated in a golden mandorla surrounded by red seraphim, with angels holding a scroll (Sanctus) below. The central figures are flanked by the Virgin Mary crowned as Queen of Heaven on the left, John the Baptist in his camel-hair shirt on the right and a collection of other saints, including St Catherine with her wheel on the lower left. In the lower margin St Augustine of Hippo (354–430) is identified. He emerges from a flower reading a book alongside a small child playing in a pond. Among other texts, St Augustine wrote a treaties on the Trinity which emphasised the equality of the three persons, as well as an autobiography, Confessions, which begins with his childhood.