The Three Kings of Cologne

Complex, fantastic, full of marvel, treasure, orientalism, glitter, colour, perfume, impossibility, symbolically full of meaning, disseminated through Christendom, responsible for churches and cathedrals, for minor and major works of painting, sculpture and poetry, such is the legend of the Three Kings, a powerful instrument in history which has grown out of the few curt sentences to be found in St. Matthew's Gospel. The gospel does not mention three kings, it does not mention kings, only an unspecified number of wise men. It does not give their names, or name the countries they belonged to. Nor does it say a word of the ox and the ass which were in the stall and have entered into nearly all pictures of the Adoration of the Kings which were ever painted in Italy, Germany or the Low Countries. Wise men, according to the gospel, came from the east: they followed a star which led them to Bethlehem, where they fell down before the young child, opened their treasures and presented their gifts, named as gold, frankincense and myrrh.