The Vision of the Three Kings
What did The Magi see? Eğri Taş Kilisesi Frescos in Ihlara Valley.
By and by, do you happen to ask yourself about the nature of The Magi’s vision? What kind of manifestation made worthwhile neglecting their observatories, abandoning their homes, putting their lives at stake on an uncertain journey?
Preview was certainly promising: the observation of a star.
In two thousand years of astronomical speculations, many educated guesses have tried to figure the phenomenon described by the word star, in Matthew’s Gospel. A comet, a conjunction of planets, the discovery of a newborn star. Charming possibilities proposed by brilliant scholars. One for all, Kepler himself.[1]
Yet, what did they see in Bethlem?
At Eğri Taş Kilisesi, in Ihlara Valley, Cappadocia, a brilliant artist gave us his answer. He depicted the Vision of the Three Kings on the ceiling of the nave, during the first years of X century, while Romanos Lecapenos and Constantinos Porphyrogenetus reigned.
Eğri Taş Kilisesi (the Church of the Broken Rock) is the most secluded, neglected by tourists, antique and significative of the many monasteries hosted in Ihlara Valley. An intriguing fracture - Ihlara Valley is - in a steepish like plateau, revealing gorgeous nature and astonishing art.
We know the church was dedicated to the Panagia Theotokos by Christophoros, tourmarches of the region. Yes, indeed! The title make you think about The white guard by Bulgakov:) Probably Christophoros was one of the generals ordered to re-captured North Syria.
The Eğri Taş Kilisesi decorative program elegantly blends classical themes with peculiar ones from Cappadocia, if not unique.[2] The Magi are at home in Cappadocia rupestrian churches fresco cycles; yet here you got something new: the observer is admitted to a glimpse of the vision they experienced.
The sequence from right to left shows the Three Kings, presenting homage to Christ, one by one, in a single person admitted sacred conversation. The first Magus is youthful and stylish, wearing complementary colours, red and deep green. He wears pants and a pointed hood, his skin so smooth. He contemplates a baby Jesus, in swaddling clothes, gently leaning on a cradle. On the frame above his head, a Λ clearly survives from an almost faded beautiful inscription. It helps us identifying ΒΑΛΤΑΣΑΡ, Balthazar.
The second Magus is a young man in his vigour, the face lightly marked. He discerns Jesus Christ as an intense young man wearing a beard, blessing him in gesture. On the frame, above Christ, we read the nomina sacra IC XC, while above the Magus we have a Γ for ΓΑΣΠΑΡ, Gaspar.
Finally, we have the third Magus, clearly identified by the intact inscription ΜΕΛΧΕΟΝ (Melchior). He beholds and sees a much more mature Jesus, bearded, with age signs on his penetrating face, blessing. Melchior too has a mature beard, a life proved skin.
As the observer’s gaze moves from right to left, the artist portrays the Three Magi progressing in age—from youngest to oldest—reflecting the evolving features seen in Christ’s visage. The composition appears to imply a growing capacity among the Magi to comprehend the mystery of divinity.
During the first sacred conversation, Balthazar witnesses the Incarnation. In the second and third conversations, Gaspar and Melchior appear to experience the message of John 14:9—_Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father_—which suggests the unity between the Father and the Son.
God’s essence is the prize bestow to the enduring sentinels, who devote themselves to contemplating the stars and cosmic phenomena.
Edifying notes and light bibliography for essential argonauts
[1] On Saturday, October 9th, 1604 Kepler observed a conjunction most eligible, according to astronomers: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars united and described a tiny triangle, mirroring the fire trine - Aries, Sagittarius, Lion - where the phenomenon was occurring. Such an event is cyclical, recurring approximately every 800 years; prior to 1604, astronomers dated similar occurrences to around 805 and 6 CE. Astronomers expected that new stars could ignite from a planetary conjunction, such as babies could be generated from human ones. On Monday 11th, early in the morning, the meteorologist Johannes Brunowsky rushed into Kepler’s house. He was very excited: he had observed a newborn star on the previous night. Due to inclement weather Kepler was delayed in his observation until Monday the 17th. In that night, thanks to Tycho Brahe instrumentation, he was able to add to the book registry of stars the newborn one, located in the foot of the constellation of the Serpentarius (Ophiuchus). Years later, in De stella nova (published in Prague, 1606) and in De vero anno (published in Frankfurt, 1614) Kepler proposed that such a phenomenon, originated from this conjunction, could have been the event described with the word star by Matthew in his Gospel.
[2] Anna M. Sitz, An Epigram for the everyman? 2022
What an extraordinary piece of detective work, linking the Three Magis, the birth of stars, and Kepler. thank you for this Anna.