Kaspar + Melchior + Balthazaar

Objawienie Pańskie ("Revelation of the Kings") is the Feast of the Epiphany of Christ to the Magi.
On January 6, the tradition is to write in chalk on the doors of the house
the initials of those three Magi,
to commemorate them and ask their blessing in the coming year.

From a third-century sarcophagus.
Those Phrygian caps they are wearing show up often in
subsequent depictions.

Mosaic, c565, the Basilica at Ravenna.
The kings are always shown to be of three generations.
See their star?

Melchior, the Persian, is the grandfatherly one.
Balthazaar, the Arabian, is of middle age.
Kaspar, a Prince of India, is the youth.

Fra Angelico and Fra' Filippo Lippi, C15,
admittedly have the Kings in the foreground,
but by golly they have the ox and the ass
on center stage.

Murillo, C17.
Melchior is kneeling;
Balthazaar stands to the left;
Kaspar stands to the right.
At top left, Murillo shows us
armed soldiers and crossed timbers,
seemingly to foreshadow the death of Christ.
Frankincense and myrrh were substances used
in the treatment for burial of the bodies of kings.

Szymon Czechowicz, of Warsaw, C18,
"Pokłon Trzech Króli."
The arrangement is similar to that of Murillo,
but the prefigurations of death are left out
and the star, the "gwiazda," shines forth instead.

Tissot, C19, "Journey of the Magi."
Or you could say "Podróż Magów."

20 K + M + B 13