Inscriptions -- England -- London; London (England) -- Antiquities; Signs and signboards
In course of time, however, each of these Three Kings[19] has had a
shield of arms assigned to him. Perhaps the earliest examples yet known
are on the roof of Norwich Cathedral. Here we find three bosses which
date from the time of Bishop Lehart, who ruled that see from 1446 to
1472; on one is a blazing star, the next has seven stars, the third a
star and crescent moon. The first and last of these appear on bosses
at Winchester, placed there in the days of Richard Foxe, successively
Bishop of Exeter, Durham and Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. He also gave relics of the three Epiphany Kings to
Portchester Old Church.[20] Lord Ashburnham’s picture of the Adoration,
exhibited at Burlington House in 1891, may be considered one of the
most noteworthy examples illustrating this branch of the subject. It
is attributed to Mabuse, and in Mr. Weale’s opinion was evidently
painted about the year 1509, under strong Franciscan influence. In it
are three processions in the background, of the Three Kings meeting
at the Jordan. Each procession has an azure banner; on one is a
blazing star, on another seven stars, and on the third a star and
crescent moon. These same charges are embroidered on their robes in
the foreground of the picture, and as on two of the Kings the names
of Jasper[21] and Balthazar appear, we see that the star and crescent
are assigned to Jasper, the blazing star to Balthazar, and the seven
stars to Melchior. Different versions of the arms exist; for instance,
those in a manuscript book of heraldry, which Sir David Lyndsay of the
Mount, Lyon King of Arms in Scotland, caused to be executed in the year
1522, and of which Mr. David Laing published a facsimile in 1878. Here
Balthazar is called King of Saba, whose assigned shield of arms is, or,
on a mount vert an Ethiopian proper, habited in a tunic per pale, azure
and gules, holding in the dexter hand a spear with a pennon per pale,
gules and azure, and wreathed round the temples, argent and azure.
Jasper is called King of Tarshish; his shield is azure, with an estoile
on the dexter, and a large crescent moon on the sinister, both proper.
Melchior is called King of Araby, and on his azure shield are six
estoiles proper. In the British Museum, on a superb jug of stoneware,
made at Raaren near Achen, about 1590, are the three shields of arms
of the Three Kings of Cologne. On this jug, Balthazar has the star and
crescent moon; Casper, as he is here called, the seven stars; and the
Ethiopian is assigned to Melchior. A work of art truly delightful, but
conveying no heraldic lesson, is the long fresco of the journey of the
Three Kings by Bennozzo Gozzoli, in the Riccardi Palace at Florence,
wherein the rich cavalcade is shown, winding about by rock and river
and wooded landscape, on which the painter has lavished all his poetry
of invention and feeling for fresh nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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