Adoration of the Trinity from the Coëtivy Hours

Object Information

Material:: Parchment (material) Gold leaf Gold pigment Pigment (material) Ink (material)

Description:: 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). Removed from the bound volume between 1933 and 1960. Beneath rubrics in red, a prayer to the Trinity opens with the illuminated initial 'V' (Veni ad liberandum nos domine deus virtutum) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the adoration of the Trinity. Men and women kneel in prayer, the scroll reads ‘Sancta trinitas unus deus’ (The Holy Trinity is one God). Two more believers kneel in the right margin. The Three persons of the Trinity are presented as bearded men, each with one hand on a book and the other raised in blessing. They are encircled by red seraphim and blue cherubim and/or thrones (the highest order of angels). In the upper margin, angels sing or say ‘Sanctus’. Two birds, a butterfly and a hybrid (half-man half-beast) archer aiming at a peacock also inhabit the margins. The kneeling men are absent from the verso and the number of angels is reduced to one.

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