Birth of St John the Baptist 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 John the Baptist opens with the illuminated initial ‘O’ (O Johannes gloriose) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Birth of John the Baptist. The main figures are identified in scrolls, perhaps a nod to the fact that Zacharias was deaf. The swaddled infant is held by a midwife or servant, while his mother, Elizabeth, rests in bed after her labour. She is attended by her cousin, the Virgin Mary, along with several unnamed neighbours or relatives. Zacharias writes his son’s name in a book, and thereafter his speech is restored. The lower margin includes an archer emerging from a flower aiming a crossbow at a centaur-like hybrid creature carrying a club. Prigent’s two mottos appear in the right margin. ‘Helas bella mercy’ (a plea to the Virgin’s aid) is written in red above and below a golden mirror and around that mirror is ‘dame sans per’ (lady without equal). That both mottos, each with a strong focus on the Virgin Mary, are included alongside a birth scene suggest Prigent’s hope for children with a wife who shared a name with the holy mother.