The Coëtivy Master (active 1450-1485)
The Coëtivy Master (active 1450-1485)
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Paris or the Loire Valley, c.1470s]
An intimate work by ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Coëtivy Master, graced with fine borders filled with plants, birds, angels and imaginative vignettes, in a splendid late sixteenth-century fanfare binding.
112 x 82mm. 288, lacking six leaves, collation: 112, 27 (of 8, lacking i), 3-58, 67 (of 8, viii a cancelled blank), 7-88, 97 (of 8, lacking ii), 108, 116 (of 8, lacking iii & iv), 128, 135 (of 6, lacking iv), 14-158, 166, 17-258, 266 (of 8, lacking iv, viii a cancelled blank), 27-378, sporadic modern pencil foliation throughout, 12 lines, ruled space: 53 x 36mm, some prickings evident, flourished capitals alternately gold and blue, one- to three-line illuminated initials throughout, many text pages with one-sided panel borders of acanthus, flowers and berries, nine historiated initials with three-sided borders of acanthus, flowers, fruit and birds, and nine large miniatures with gold bars on two sides within full borders containing acanthus, flowers, fruit, birds and human figures (lacking six leaves, five of these miniature leaves opening the Gospel extracts, lauds, prime and sext in the Hours of the Virgin and the opening of the Hours of the Cross). Late-16th-century Parisian dark brown morocco gilt à la fanfare, raised spine bands, metal catches (missing clasps, corners bumped, worn at hinges). Chemise slip case stamped ‘J. MacDonald Co., Norwalk, Conn.’, quarter-morocco box, gilt title on spine.
Content:
Ruled blank f.1; Calendar ff.2-13v; Gospel extracts f.14-22v (opening imperfectly); Obsecro Te ff.23-29; O intemerata ff.29-35v; Stabat mater ff.35v-41; Passion according to Luke ff.41-45; Prayer to Saint Avoie [Avoye], in French ff.45v-49; Seven verses of St Bernard ff.49-51; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.52-137; Office of St Sebastian ff.137-149; Suffrages ff.149v-163; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.164-198v; Hours of the Cross ff.199-202v (opening imperfectly); Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.203-208; prayer to the Trinity ff.208-209v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris ff.210-287; ruled blank f.288.
Illumination:
The miniatures in this petite Book of Hours were painted by the Coëtivy Master, active in Paris from c.1450-1485, perhaps with some assistance from his workshop. Called by Avril and Reynaud ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Master is named for a Book of Hours painted for the chamberlain of Charles VII, Olivier de Coëtivy, and his wife Marie de Valois (Vienna, ÖNB cod 1929); he also worked across the figural arts as a panel painter, a designer of stained glass and of tapestries. His illustrious clients included Louis XI's brother, Charles of France; his work adorned the great Parisian church of Saint-Séverin and royal courts. Described as the third great painter of the French court with Jean Fouquet and Barthélemy d'Eyck, he has most recently been identified as Colin d'Amiens, recorded in Paris 1461-88. Colin's only documented work, a monumental stone Entombment group carved by Adrien Wincart in 1495-6 to his design, is compatible with the oeuvre assembled for the Coëtivy Master but cannot conclusively prove the identification (F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1460-1520, 1993, pp.58-69; D. Thiébaut et al, Primitifs français, Découvertes et redécouvertes, 2004, pp.97-102).
Both Otto Pächt and Dagmar Thoss attribute the miniatures in our manuscript to the Coëtivy Master, though Plummer points to the softer, ‘less incisive’ drawing, a darker and cooler palette, and a lack of certain characteristic Coëtivy types, such as ‘the strong-jawed males with heads thrust forwards or the elegant, narrow-waisted ladies’, in support of these Hours being painted by a close follower, perhaps the same hand who painted a manuscript sold at Sotheby’s (12 December 1927, lot 8). Reynaud agrees that the hand in the aforementioned manuscripts is the same, but attributes both these small Books of Hours to the Master himself, perhaps with the assistance of his workshop; she considers them alongside the Rivoire Hours (Paris, BnF, nouv. acq. lat. 3114), painted by the Master in 1465-70, in which a more subtle, complex palette, featuring a dark olive green and more nuanced blues emerges alongside figures clad in very mannered draperies defined with very firm lines along their folds, dating both manuscripts to the following decade.
The miniatures in our Hours represent a development from the Master’s earlier style; he continued to draw upon his stock of earlier patterns, but made the compositions increasingly complex, most often through the addition of atmospheric detail, both architectural and natural, to the landscape. Fruitful comparison may be made with an Hours for the use of St John of Jerusalem, dated to c.1460 (BnF, ms lat.1400, f.24v, Avril and Reynaud pp.59-60): the Virgin and Child miniature that opens the Obsecro te in the Rosenberg Hours no longer depicts the Virgin suckling the Child in isolation on her canopied throne, but shows her in a colonnaded enclosure through whose columns a distant city can be glimpsed. Meanwhile, the Flight into Egypt is shown under night skies, the treetops on the horizon touched with yellow moonlight. The borders exemplify some of the finest work of the Coëtivy Master and his workshop: the page design allows plenty of space for the multiple marginal subjects painted by the Master to exist in pleasing rapport with the miniatures. Of particular note are the music-making angels with expressive pale faces, typical of the Coëtivy Master’s female and angelic subjects, that surround the Virgin and Child on f.23 and the small vignettes that appear in the bottom half of every border, save for that around David in Prayer (f.164), making imaginative reference to the miniature. In spite of a date of production in the 1470s, none of our borders feature the divided grounds with liquid gold that appear in the Rivoire Hours, one of the earliest Parisian examples of this style of border.
The subjects of the large miniatures are as follows: Virgin and Child f.23; Annunciation f.52; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.94; Presentation in the Temple f.105; Flight into Egypt f.112; Coronation of the Virgin f.127; David in Prayer f.164; Pentecost f.203; and Funeral Mass f.210.
The subjects of the historiated initials are as follows: St Luke writing f.16; St Matthew writing f.18; St Mark writing f.21; Virgin and Child f.29; Flagellation f.41; St Avoie receiving communion from the Virgin f.45v; Martyrdom of St Sebastian f.137; Trinity f.149v; and Death attacking a woman f.223.
Provenance
(1) The use of the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are for the standard use of Paris; the Calendar and rest of the liturgy give no more definite indication of where these Hours were made. Plummer does note that the petitions and following prayers, aside from repeated but inconsistent connection with various Hours from the Loire region, have some unique features not found in other manuscripts; the Obsecro te and O intemerata are unlike any other text studied by him. On this basis, he concludes that our manuscript was written in a centre in the Loire region, copying some uncommon textual model. Elsewhere in the manuscript, the very rare inclusion of Saints Fausta and Consortia in the Litany would suggest a connection to eastern France, while the inclusion, marked with an historiated initial, of a prayer to another virgin saint, St Avoye, might offer a further clue as to the original commission. Another Hours illuminated by a follower of the Coëtivy Master (with Les Enluminures, BOH 168) includes the same devotion to St Avoye.
(2) Sotheby’s, 12 July 1971, lot 56, sold as 'The Property of a Gentleman'. Bought by Quaritch for £3,500.
(3) Arthur Haddaway (1901-1981): his sale, Christie's New York, 25 September 1981, lot 8. Purchased by Alexandre Rosenberg from H.P. Kraus on 11 January 1982 for $75,314.
(4) Rosenberg Ms 12.
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The Coëtivy Master (active 1450-1485)
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Paris or the Loire Valley, c.1470s]
An intimate work by ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Coëtivy Master, graced with fine borders filled with plants, birds, angels and imaginative vignettes, in a splendid late sixteenth-century fanfare binding.
112 x 82mm. 288, lacking six leaves, collation: 112, 27 (of 8, lacking i), 3-58, 67 (of 8, viii a cancelled blank), 7-88, 97 (of 8, lacking ii), 108, 116 (of 8, lacking iii & iv), 128, 135 (of 6, lacking iv), 14-158, 166, 17-258, 266 (of 8, lacking iv, viii a cancelled blank), 27-378, sporadic modern pencil foliation throughout, 12 lines, ruled space: 53 x 36mm, some prickings evident, flourished capitals alternately gold and blue, one- to three-line illuminated initials throughout, many text pages with one-sided panel borders of acanthus, flowers and berries, nine historiated initials with three-sided borders of acanthus, flowers, fruit and birds, and nine large miniatures with gold bars on two sides within full borders containing acanthus, flowers, fruit, birds and human figures (lacking six leaves, five of these miniature leaves opening the Gospel extracts, lauds, prime and sext in the Hours of the Virgin and the opening of the Hours of the Cross). Late-16th-century Parisian dark brown morocco gilt à la fanfare, raised spine bands, metal catches (missing clasps, corners bumped, worn at hinges). Chemise slip case stamped ‘J. MacDonald Co., Norwalk, Conn.’, quarter-morocco box, gilt title on spine.
Content:
Ruled blank f.1; Calendar ff.2-13v; Gospel extracts f.14-22v (opening imperfectly); Obsecro Te ff.23-29; O intemerata ff.29-35v; Stabat mater ff.35v-41; Passion according to Luke ff.41-45; Prayer to Saint Avoie [Avoye], in French ff.45v-49; Seven verses of St Bernard ff.49-51; Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris ff.52-137; Office of St Sebastian ff.137-149; Suffrages ff.149v-163; Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.164-198v; Hours of the Cross ff.199-202v (opening imperfectly); Hours of the Holy Spirit ff.203-208; prayer to the Trinity ff.208-209v; Office of the Dead, use of Paris ff.210-287; ruled blank f.288.
Illumination:
The miniatures in this petite Book of Hours were painted by the Coëtivy Master, active in Paris from c.1450-1485, perhaps with some assistance from his workshop. Called by Avril and Reynaud ‘the most important artist practising in Paris in the third quarter of the century’, the Master is named for a Book of Hours painted for the chamberlain of Charles VII, Olivier de Coëtivy, and his wife Marie de Valois (Vienna, ÖNB cod 1929); he also worked across the figural arts as a panel painter, a designer of stained glass and of tapestries. His illustrious clients included Louis XI's brother, Charles of France; his work adorned the great Parisian church of Saint-Séverin and royal courts. Described as the third great painter of the French court with Jean Fouquet and Barthélemy d'Eyck, he has most recently been identified as Colin d'Amiens, recorded in Paris 1461-88. Colin's only documented work, a monumental stone Entombment group carved by Adrien Wincart in 1495-6 to his design, is compatible with the oeuvre assembled for the Coëtivy Master but cannot conclusively prove the identification (F. Avril and N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1460-1520, 1993, pp.58-69; D. Thiébaut et al, Primitifs français, Découvertes et redécouvertes, 2004, pp.97-102).
Both Otto Pächt and Dagmar Thoss attribute the miniatures in our manuscript to the Coëtivy Master, though Plummer points to the softer, ‘less incisive’ drawing, a darker and cooler palette, and a lack of certain characteristic Coëtivy types, such as ‘the strong-jawed males with heads thrust forwards or the elegant, narrow-waisted ladies’, in support of these Hours being painted by a close follower, perhaps the same hand who painted a manuscript sold at Sotheby’s (12 December 1927, lot 8). Reynaud agrees that the hand in the aforementioned manuscripts is the same, but attributes both these small Books of Hours to the Master himself, perhaps with the assistance of his workshop; she considers them alongside the Rivoire Hours (Paris, BnF, nouv. acq. lat. 3114), painted by the Master in 1465-70, in which a more subtle, complex palette, featuring a dark olive green and more nuanced blues emerges alongside figures clad in very mannered draperies defined with very firm lines along their folds, dating both manuscripts to the following decade.
The miniatures in our Hours represent a development from the Master’s earlier style; he continued to draw upon his stock of earlier patterns, but made the compositions increasingly complex, most often through the addition of atmospheric detail, both architectural and natural, to the landscape. Fruitful comparison may be made with an Hours for the use of St John of Jerusalem, dated to c.1460 (BnF, ms lat.1400, f.24v, Avril and Reynaud pp.59-60): the Virgin and Child miniature that opens the Obsecro te in the Rosenberg Hours no longer depicts the Virgin suckling the Child in isolation on her canopied throne, but shows her in a colonnaded enclosure through whose columns a distant city can be glimpsed. Meanwhile, the Flight into Egypt is shown under night skies, the treetops on the horizon touched with yellow moonlight. The borders exemplify some of the finest work of the Coëtivy Master and his workshop: the page design allows plenty of space for the multiple marginal subjects painted by the Master to exist in pleasing rapport with the miniatures. Of particular note are the music-making angels with expressive pale faces, typical of the Coëtivy Master’s female and angelic subjects, that surround the Virgin and Child on f.23 and the small vignettes that appear in the bottom half of every border, save for that around David in Prayer (f.164), making imaginative reference to the miniature. In spite of a date of production in the 1470s, none of our borders feature the divided grounds with liquid gold that appear in the Rivoire Hours, one of the earliest Parisian examples of this style of border.
The subjects of the large miniatures are as follows: Virgin and Child f.23; Annunciation f.52; Annunciation to the Shepherds f.94; Presentation in the Temple f.105; Flight into Egypt f.112; Coronation of the Virgin f.127; David in Prayer f.164; Pentecost f.203; and Funeral Mass f.210.
The subjects of the historiated initials are as follows: St Luke writing f.16; St Matthew writing f.18; St Mark writing f.21; Virgin and Child f.29; Flagellation f.41; St Avoie receiving communion from the Virgin f.45v; Martyrdom of St Sebastian f.137; Trinity f.149v; and Death attacking a woman f.223.
Provenance
(1) The use of the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are for the standard use of Paris; the Calendar and rest of the liturgy give no more definite indication of where these Hours were made. Plummer does note that the petitions and following prayers, aside from repeated but inconsistent connection with various Hours from the Loire region, have some unique features not found in other manuscripts; the Obsecro te and O intemerata are unlike any other text studied by him. On this basis, he concludes that our manuscript was written in a centre in the Loire region, copying some uncommon textual model. Elsewhere in the manuscript, the very rare inclusion of Saints Fausta and Consortia in the Litany would suggest a connection to eastern France, while the inclusion, marked with an historiated initial, of a prayer to another virgin saint, St Avoye, might offer a further clue as to the original commission. Another Hours illuminated by a follower of the Coëtivy Master (with Les Enluminures, BOH 168) includes the same devotion to St Avoye.
(2) Sotheby’s, 12 July 1971, lot 56, sold as 'The Property of a Gentleman'. Bought by Quaritch for £3,500.
(3) Arthur Haddaway (1901-1981): his sale, Christie's New York, 25 September 1981, lot 8. Purchased by Alexandre Rosenberg from H.P. Kraus on 11 January 1982 for $75,314.
(4) Rosenberg Ms 12.
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