Guinefort from the Belle Heures
The Belle Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry holds a special place in the long history of books of hours, and particularly in my Saint Guinefort series, due to its prolific patron and the artisans that executed it.
Different from my earlier works, this one focuses less on saintly illustration and more around the actual ‘suffrage’ prayer itself. As I have outlined in earlier examinations, a suffrage is a prayer to a specific saint to seek their aid. Saints were earthly ladders to God, and their approachability made them popular conduits to holiness. It was time for Guinefort to join their ranks with his own suffrage prayer.
Based upon similar prayers to saints Sebastian and Roch†, subjects with both plague and canine connections, I cobbled together the following short prayer:
A Suffrage to Saint Guinefort
De sancto guinefortus
Ave canis fidelis et martir guinefortus sua bonita fortis custodit innocens a malo.
Of Saint Guinefort
Hail faithful hound and martyr Guinefort. Your good strength protects the innocent from evil.
Versicle: Ora pro nobis beate martir canis
V: Pray for us blessed martyr hound
Responsum: Ut digni efficiamur
R: That we may be worthy
Oratio: Intercessio quaesumus, Domine, beatae Sancte Guinefortus canis fidelis et martyris tuae ab omni mortifera peste corporis et animae nos protegat.
We beseech you, O Lord, through the intercession of the blessed Saint Guinefort, your faithful dog and martyr, to protect us from every deadly pestilence of the body and soul.
Per sacrosanctum corpus et sanguinem dominum nostrum Iesum Christum filium tuum. Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.
Through the sacred blood and body of Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, O God, world without end. Amen.
This is the text body reflected in part in earlier pieces and is now shown in its full text here for the first time. By making the illustration a smaller part of the composition I was able to incorporate the full suffrage text on a single leaf.
The Art of a Cephalophore
Although the illustration is small, it features a new iconography for the Guinefort – that of cephalophore. This is a saint that carries their head in their hands – or paws in this case – examples include Saint Hubert and Saint Denis, with an example of the latter can be found in this same book of hours.
Thematically, this decision adds a heightened drama to the death of the dog. While the decapitation of Saint Denis is carried out by an unknown executioner, Guinefort was dispatched by his owner whose child he had faithfully protected. We see the moment play out before the knight finds his unharmed son and realizes his mistake. Compare this to an illustration from an anonymous artist of a German copy of The Story of the Seven Sages from the 15th century. This collection featured a fabled version of the Guinefort tale usually titled “The Faithful Hound”.
Material Matters
Also new to this piece – homemade raised gilding gesso. This was my first time making it and using it correctly, seen here in the marginal leaves. The recipe is based off of Cenini’s‡ combining slaked plaster, hide glue, honey, and pigment. It keeps well dried or in the fridge. This creates a pillow of material that the gold is laid on top of, and can afterwards be burnished to a mirror-like finish.
The gesso took a few tries to get right, as my initial attempt did not provide a final product that could be burnished well and likely contained too much plaster. The final recipe I’ve landed on that works for me is:
Illumination Gesso
• 3 Parts Slaked Plaster
• 1 Part Hide Glue (I used Titebond)
• Pigment (I used powdered dried gouache from an old tube)
• 1/2-1 part honey (adjust as needed)
Mull the ingredients together until smooth. You want it to be shiny and a bit goopy. You can store it either wet in the fridge in a sealed container (will eventually mold) or dry it out in “buttons” to reconstitute. Wait about 24 hours after application before you apply gold leaf, and use a paper tube to breathe on it before adding the leaf.
Now that I’m used to this material. I really couldn’t imagine using anything else for gilding. There’s a reason some of these recipes haven’t changed for hundreds of years (this one just removes the more harmful chemicals – e.g. lead)
Man About Dog
Continuing the tradition of modeling each page after a different hound, this one is based off of the greyhound from the 2004 Irish comedy Man About Dog. I was fortunate enough to see this film in 2005 at the Boston Irish Film Festival and loved it. You can find it for streaming online, but I would love to get my hands on a hard copy one day.
The film follows three young men and their quest for a champion racing hound of their own, their misadventures taking them across Ireland.
There’s even a bit of vetula-inspired imagery when Olivia, the wealthy widow who hires the group to rig a race, rewards them with Cerberus.
The Final Product
The final result measures the same as the inspiring text – 9.36″ x 6.7″, and is rendered in iron gall ink, gesso, and gold leaf on bristol board. It continues me exploration into what it would look like to include Guinefort into the crowd of saints within book of hours. It was both a rewarding and challenging page with many unexpected outcomes – especially as I continue to develop my calligraphy skills. It also is an important transitional piece as I continue to focus increasingly on authenticity in materials in order to more fully achieve integration with the inspiring texts.
This piece, although not as elaborately decorative as previous ones, marks both a culmination of the first phase of this work and a new beginning of incorporating more traditional materials.
This piece is part of an ongoing series exploring the iconography of Saint Guinefort through the lens of medieval manuscript illumination. Prints and additional information about the series can be found in my shop.
Citations:
*“The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry.” Metmuseum.org, 2020, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/470306.
†Gunhouse, Glenn. “Hypertext Book of Hours, Suffrages to the Saints.” Medievalist.net, 2025, medievalist.net/hourstxt/suffrage.htm. Accessed 3 Dec. 2025.
‡Cennini, Cennino. “A Treatise on Painting : Cennini, Cennino, Active 15th Century : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” Internet Archive, 1844, archive.org/details/gri_33125009350998/page/96/mode/2up?q=157. Accessed 3 Dec. 2025.
Further Reading:
• Schmitt, Jean Claude. The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children since the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Longnon, Jean, and Raymond Cazelles. The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. George Braziller, 1969.
Images:
• Woodcut: Anonymous Artists. The Illustrated Bartsch. Artstor, JSTOR
• “The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry.” The Met Cloisters, www.metmuseum.org/.
• Man About Dog, 2004.
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Hi, I'm Caitlin
I’m a practicing artist located in Massachusetts focusing in traditional creative approaches including stained glass, ceramics, and material creation.
This blog covers my process, interests, and inspirations as research becomes a larger part of my practice.
