Harrowing of Hell 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 fourth article of faith in French opens on the verso with an initial ‘O’ (O com joyeuse) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Harrowing of Hell or Decent into Limbo. Christ, attended by angels and holding the resurrection banner, welcomes the souls of the deceased out of the fires of hell, the two figures at the front probably intended to represent Adam and Eve. A demon appears at the back of the group. It is illuminated in the margins by a lion holding the strap of a mirror in its maw, around the mirror is written one of Prigent’s mottos, ‘dame sans per’ (lady without equal). An eagle appears below and in the lower margin is the overpainted black and gold bars of the Coëtivy family supported by an angel and lion.