Apotropaic Three Magi: Cut-paper miniature.

[Three Magi]. Sancti Tres Reges. S.l. [likely southern Germany or Austria]: s.n., s.a. [likely late 18th century]. [12.4 x 8.1 cm], [1] f. miniature painting on cut paper. Minor staining, wrinkling affecting pigment of painted area, annotations and old mend on verso.
 
 
Late 18th-century miniature painting on lace-cut paper depicting the Three Magi (Sancti Tres Reges)—Caspar, Melchior, & Balthasar—in their full regalia and bearing their customary gifts. Balthazar is shown as an African, a common occurrence in art from German-speaking lands from at least the late 15th century (on this, see Paul H. D. Kaplan, The Rise of the Black Magus in Western Art, and the new Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art, K. Collins & B. C. Keene, eds.). 
 
The German inscription on the verso begins with the initial “C. M. B.” (the rest is illegible to me), a reference no doubt to the Germanic tradition of invoking the Three Magi to protect the domestic realm.
 
The origin, meaning, and apotropaic qualities of the names “Caspar, Melchior & Balthasar” (“C. M. B.) were in the Early Modern Period (and still remain) a matter of some debate. During Epiphany it became a tradition to write in chalk on the door of one’s house the letters “C. M. B.” flanked by the numbers of the New Year, e.g., “20 + C. M. B. + 24.” A common explanation of these letters was that they stood for the Latin phrase “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” (“May Christ bless this house”), but they also came to be associated with the names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior, & Balthazar.
 
The Brothers Grimm, for example, in the entry for “Dreikönigsabend” (“Three Kings Eve,” or “Twelfth Night”) in their Deutsches Wörterbuch (1852), remark that the “C. M. B.” sign warded off the devil and witches. Johann Baptist von Horix noted in the 1780s that a “Three Kings slip” (Dreikönig-Zettel) printed with the images of the Magi or the letters “C. M. B.” was thought to protect against ghosts and Hexen and that such amulets could be traced back at least to the 16th century (p. 9). In 1715, Placidus Taller published a popular sermon on the Epiphany in which he offered numerous rather fanciful interpretations of the letters “C. M. B.” and their association with the names of the Three Magi. 
 
Devotional miniatures on paper cut in imitation of lace are sometimes called canivets or Weißschnittbilder (for their history, see H. Heres, pp. 13-32 and A. Spamer, plates LIX-CI). 
 
 
*H. Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett; A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Placidus Taller, Einfältiger doch Wohlgemeinter Bauern-Pediger, Das ist, Fest-Tägliche Predigen Auf das gantze Jahr (1715), pp. 34-44; Johann Baptist von Horix, Viertes Sendschreiben eines Layen an seinen Freund, einen Weltgeistlichen, über das während der Jesuiterepoche ausgestreuete Unkraut verschiedene merkwürdige deutschgeistliche Geschichtsumstände enthaltend (1786); Christoph Kürzeder, Als die Dinge heilig waren: Gelebte Frömmigkeit im Zeitalter des Barock; S. Metken, Geschnittenes Papier eine Geschichte des Ausschneidens in Europa von 1500 bis heute; A. Magnien, Canivets de la collection Gabriel Magnien.