The Nativity 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 first article of faith in French opens with an initial ‘L’ (O tres glorieuse) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Nativity. The Christ Child lays in the centre, illuminated by light from the star. He is surrounded on the left by his kneeling mother Mary, and on the right by Joseph, two shepherds and a donkey and oxen. The Annunciation to the Shepherds is found in the margins. The shepherds beside their flock look to an angel holding a scroll that reads, puer natus est, a group of blue immediately cherubs above by his hand strawberries, foreshadowing the child’s Passion. Also on the right is shield with the overpainted arms of Alain de Coëtivy, hanging from palm fronds. The original quartering is somewhat visible on the verso, where holly leaves and berries have been added to the upper margin.