From early times he has been represented as a blackamoor or negro. But not from the earliest. In the pictures by Giotto and Fra Angelico representing the Adoration of the Magi, Balthazar is shown as a white man. In a picture on the same subject by Bernardo Luini he appears with the woolly hair, black face and thick lips of the negro.
Somewhere between the time of Fra Angelico and Bernardo Luini, Balthazar changed his skin and became a colored gentleman.
In many Italian cities, it is the custom of shop-keepers to decorate their windows with puppets meant to represent the three kings. Conspicuous among these grins the black face of Balthazar.
There is a poem by the famous Dean Trench which was probably suggested by Luini’s picture. Here are some of the most striking lines. They will show you how closely the poem follows the picture:
The Adoration of the Magi.
Painting by Veronese.
From what region of the morn
Are ye come, thus travel-worn,
With those boxes pearl-embost,
Caskets rare, and gifts of cost?