Slav Epic – my daily art display

Alphonse Mucha. The Slav Epic cycle. Part 3

My fifth and final blog about Alphonse Mucha’s looks at the last six monumental paintings in his Slav Epic cycle and I will talk about the current fate of all twenty of the works of art.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.15 The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice by Alphonse Mucha

His fifteenth painting of the Slav Epic was entitled The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice which he completed in 1914. The Bible of Kralice, also called the Kralice Bible, was the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into the Czech language. It was translated by the Unity of the Brethren and later printed in the town of Kralice nad Oslavou, a village in the Vysočina Region of the east-central Czech Republic. The first edition had six volumes and was published between 1579 and 1593. The Unity of the Brethren was formed in Bohemia in 1457 and were followers of the teachings of Jan Hus and Petr Chelčicky. The Brethren deemed that education was the key to true faith. The translating of the Bible into the Czech language occurred in the Bohemian town of Ivančice, which coincidentally was Alphonse Mucha’s birthplace. It had a two-fold importance. Firstly, it kept the Czech language alive and secondly, it brought the teaching of the holy book to those people whose mother tongue was Czech. In this painting, Mucha has depicted his hometown of Ivančice on a beautiful sunny autumn day. The Brethren are hard at work, gathering around the printing press to inspect the first printed pages.

Look to the couple of figures in the left foreground. One is a young student who is readings to an elderly blind man. The young man looks out at us with a grim expression. It could well be that his dour countenance is seemingly foretelling the forthcoming persecution of the Hussites and the Unity of the Brethren in the seventeenth century.

The Last Days of Jan Amos Komenský in Naarden

The persecution of the followers of Jan Hus and the Unity of the Brethren came about around 1619 when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II became King of Bohemia. Once in power, he set about reinstating the Roman Catholic Church in the predominantly Protestant region, prompting a revolt which culminated in 1620 with the Battle of White Mountain near Prague. Thirty thousand Bohemians defending religious liberty were crushed by King Ferdinand’s large and powerful imperial army of 25,000 soldiers. Twenty-seven noblemen involved in the insurrection were executed and Protestants were given the order to either convert to Catholicism within three days, or they must leave Bohemia. In Alphonse Mucha’s sixteenth painting in the Slav Epic cycle, entitled The Last days of Jan Amos Komenský [Comenius] in Naarden, which he completed in 1918, he has featured one of the country’s most celebrated religious exiles.

Komenský was one of the Bohemian Unity of the Brethren’s spiritual leaders. His belief was that education was the answer to true faith and his pioneering approach to teaching gained him a reputation throughout Europe, above all among his fellow exiles. Komenský spent the last years of his exile in the Dutch town of Naarden. He would spend his days walking along the coast, and when he was unable to walk any more, he asked friends to carry him in a chair down to the coast. In Mucha’s gloomy depiction we see Komenský slumped in his chair, facing the sea. It is all about loss. Loss of freedom, loss of his beloved Bohemia and he is well aware that death is imminent. Around him we see his followers, his fellow exiles who realise their leader will not be with them much longer. They just need to comfort each other at this sad time. The flickering light of their lamp offers them a vague hope that one day they will be allowed to return to their beloved homeland, Bohemia.

The Holy Mount Athos features in Alphonse Mucha’s seventeenth work in his Slav Epic cycle which he completed in 1926. Mount Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least AD 800 and the Byzantine era. It is a sacred, monastery-dotted peninsula in north-eastern Greece. From 1342 until 1372 Mount Athos was under Serbian administration. Mucha was moved by the temple’s spirituality when he visited the peninsula himself in 1924.

In this painting, we see depicted a crowd of Russian pilgrims paying homage in one of the peninsula’s temples. Floating above the weary pilgrims who have climbed the mountain are angels, some of whom are holding images of other Mount Athos monasteries in the nearby area. The pilgrims in the procession move in a semi-circle towards four high priests at the rear of the temple. In the hands of each of the priests is a relic which the pilgrims are allowed to touch. The darkness of the temple is lit up by a stream of light, which is filtering through the apse from the left, highlighting the figures of angels. On the ceiling of the temple, we see the figure of the Virgin Mary.

In the foreground, a young boy props up a blind old man. The pair have a striking resemblance to the two figures in the foreground of his 15^th painting of the Cycle.

The Slav Epic cycle No.18 The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree (1926)

The eighteenth painting Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic’ cycle No.18: The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree which he completed in 1926 is all about the Omladina society, a Bohemian radical organisation. This Bohemian (Czech) nationalist youth organisation was created in the 1880s. The group was looked upon as being anti-Austrian and anti-clerical and was part of a fast-growing nationalistic revival that was being whipped up at the turn of the century. Gatherings became more violent and in December 1893. The Governor declared a proverbial martial law and, after a political murder on the 23rd of December, Omladina was connected to the murder of police informer Rudolf Mrva. With a carte blanche to prosecute, the government arrested 76 Omladina “conspirators” aged 17–22 and charged two working class Omladina members with the actual murder. The trial began on January 15, 1894 in a closed military tribunal and the leaders were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to prison.

Alphonse Mucha chose to depict the group of youths in a less violent and confrontational way. We see them kneeling in a circle and holding hands as they pledge allegiance to the goddess Slavia. Slavia sits in a linden tree in the background symbolising divination. The young people are surrounded by members of patriotic and political organisations, and beyond them sit figures dressed in folk costume representing the Czech people. Look at the foreground and you will see a male and female figure sitting on either side of the wall. These figures are modelled by Mucha’s children, on the left, his daughter Jaroslava and on the right, his bare-chested son Jiří, in front of whom is his mother. The figure of Jaroslava is seen playing a lyre and Mucha uses this image of his daughter in his poster advertising 1928 exhibition at Prague’s Trade Fair.

It is strange to consider that the nineteenth painting in the Slav Epic, The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia is the most contemporary of Alphonse Mucha’s works and yet it was first of the twenty painting cycle that he completed, in 1914. Mucha, during his various visits to countries to collect information for his series of paintings, visited Russia in 1913 and to his horror, he found that the great Slavic nation of Russia, a nation he had so admired, was in fact overwhelmed with poverty and suffering and considerably less progressive than the countries in the rest of Europe. Tsar Alexander II had been crowned ruler in 1855 and set about trying to improve the conditions of all the people. He introduced the Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia which was the first and most important of the liberal reforms passed. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. The people were unsure whether things would improve for them and, in this painting, Mucha has depicted a subdued crowd of Russian peasants looks on anxiously as the official reads the edict. In the hazy background we can see the iconic buildings of St Basil’s cathedral and the Kremlin. The sun is barely visible in this foggy atmosphere. Maybe this was Mucha’s way of symbolising a glimmer of hope for a happier and sunnier future for the Russian people. In the left foreground Mucha has depicted a mother cosseting her child which symbolises both the fear and hope associated with future generations.

Apotheosis of the Slavs by Alphonse Mucha

The last painting, the twentieth, in The Slav Epic cycle, The Apotheosis of the Slavs, was completed by Alphonse Mucha in 1926. It was to be the culmination of the project and he sought to bring together all the themes addressed in the previous nineteen works and celebrate the independence of the Slav nations. It is an unusual work comprised of four different parts, each characterised by four different colours. Each of the sections represent a successive period in Slav history. In the bottom right-hand corner of the work which comprises of shades of blue we have the early years of Slav history. The top left-hand corner bathed in reds denotes the bloodshed of the Hussite wars during the Middle Ages. Below the figures in the red shaded area we see other figures which are in shadow and they represent the enemy and the repeated merciless attacks inflicted on the Slavic tribes. The final-coloured quadrant is a band of yellow in the centre of the painting which lights up the Czech and Slovak soldiers returning from World War I, which signalled the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the dawn of a new age for the Slavic people. In the bottom left foreground, we see young boys who wave green branches at them. It is a painting of hope for the Slav nation and the bare-chested figure at the centre of the work is the personification of the new, strong, and independent republic, guided and protected by a Christ figure which we see in the central background.

In 1928 the complete cycle was displayed for the first time in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague. Alphonse Mucha died in July, 1939. Shortly before his death he was interrogated by the Gestapo, as he was an important exponent of public life in Czechoslovakia. During World War II, the Slav Epic was wrapped and hidden away to prevent seizure by the Nazis.

Following the Czechoslovak coup d’état of 1948 and subsequent communist takeover of the country, Mucha was considered a decadent and bourgeois artist, at odds with the principles of socialist realism, (not to be confused with the term, social realism). Socialist realism was a form of modern realism imposed in Russia by Stalin following his rise to power after the death of Lenin in 1924, characterised in painting by rigorously optimistic pictures of Soviet life painted in a realist style.

Moravský Krumlov Castle, home to Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic

After World War 2, the paintings were moved to the chateau at Moravský Krumlov by a group of local patriots, and the cycle went on display there in 1963. Recently, the city of Prague has waged a decade-long legal battle over the work which intensified in early 2010. Much consideration has been given to relocating the Slav Epic from Moravský Krumlov where it has been on show for almost fifty years, to the Czech capital, Prague. The works would be seen by many more people in Prague with the influx of tourists but the city does not have a suitable venue which could accommodate all twenty monumental works. Notwithstanding that problem, the city of Prague requested the return of the Slav Epic for restoration work and subsequent display.

After a lengthy court battle between John Mucha (the painter’s grandson) and the city of Prague, it was confirmed that the capital held rights to ownership of The Slav Epic. It would therefore seem unlikely that the city would relinquish the paintings and move them back to the Moravian town. On January 22^nd 2021, Prague City Museum Director Magdalena Jurikova said that the canvases are being stored in a “secret location” in Prague after a temporary exhibition from 2018 to 2020. Jurikova says the paintings will be moved to the town of Moravsky Krumlov in the spring of 2021 for another temporary display while the Prague government builds a final resting place for the Slav Epic. It is intended that the works will be displayed in the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Savarin development, a new regeneration project in the historic centre of Prague, which is due to open in 2026.

I would be interested to hear from anybody who has actually seen the Slav Epic collection of paintings.

Much of the information for the last five blogs regarding the life of Alphonse Mucha and his Slav Epic series of paintings came from the excellent website The Mucha Foundation

Alphonse Mucha. The Slav Epic. Part 2.

Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel: Truth Prevails by Alphonse Mucha (1916)

We have now reached the eighth in the series of twenty paintings by Alphonse Mucha in his Slav Epic cycle. This monumental painting (8.1 x 6.1 metres), which he completed in 1916, was entitled Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel: Truth Prevails. Jan Hus was another outspoken clergyman who criticized the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church. His Czech-language sermons inside the nondescript Bethlehem Chapel in Prague’s Old Town electrified congregations. In 1415, after clashing repeatedly with church leaders, he was charged with heresy and burned at the stake.

Burning at the stake of Jon Huss (Spiezer Chronik)

Jan Hus, sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, born in 1374, was, like Jan Milíč of Kroměříž, the subject of the previous work, one of the most influential clergymen of the Czech Reformation and one who rejected the Catholic Church’s excesses and argued that the Bible was the only true source of God’s word. In 1414 he was summoned before the Council of Constance, to defend his teaching. He came to the Council with a safe pass issued by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, and yet the Council declared him a heretic for his teachings and he was burned at the stake the following year. People were outraged by his execution and it provoked a rebellion among Czech nationalists which culminated in the Hussite Wars fought between the Christian Hussites, the followers of Jan Hus, and the combined Christian Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions.

The setting of the painting is the of the high Gothic interior of the Bethlehem Church with a reticulated vault on three rows of octagonal columns. The Bethlehem Chapel was founded in 1391 in Prague by the burgher Jan Kříž and the courtier Hanuš of Műhlheim, In the painting we see Jan Hus leaning out over the edge of the four-sided pulpit, fervently preaching to a spellbound audience in Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel in 1412. Another listener is the founder of Bethlehem Chapel, the tradesman Jan Kříž – an old man seated in the front left. Jan Žižka, the future military leader of the Hussites, stands near the wall with a fresco of St George and the Dragon, on the left while Queen Sophia, wife of King Váklav IV, sits listening intently with her ladies-in-waiting on either side.

The Meeting At Krizky by Alphonse Mucha (1916)

The Meeting At Křížky is depicted in the ninth painting of the Slav Epic cycle. It is connected to the eighth painting as it is about the cruel execution of Jan Hus in July 1414, who was burnt at the stake for his condemnation of the excesses of the Catholic Church, which created widespread fury amongst his followers in Czech lands, so much so that an underground movement opposing papal authority swiftly built up. They were declared heretics by the Papacy and the Council of Constance ordered that they be removed from their parishes. Charles University in Prague was also closed to ensure that their teaching ceased. Riots ensued and Hus’ followers began to gather in remote places outside the city walls in order to mount their rebellion. This painting by Mucha depicts one such secret gathering outside of Prague on September 30th 1419. To the right of the painting, standing aloft on a makeshift stage above a gathering of people, a preacher named Koranda, who is dressed in a brown cloak and who appeals to the crowd to take up arms against the Catholic Church. In the background we see that dark clouds blacken the landscape foretelling the bloody times and devastation that was to come. The Hussite Wars, as they were known, went on for twenty-one years with the peace treaty not being signed by the combatants until July 1436.

After the Battle of Grunwald by Alphonse Mucha (1924)

There are more battles featured in the tenth painting of the Slav Saga cycle. The painting is entitled After the Battle of Grunewald which Alphonse Mucha completed in 1924. Yet again the battle/war was brought on about ownership of land and religion, a recurring theme which still holds good today. The German Catholic military order of the Teutonic Knights, a Catholic religious order founded as a military order around 1192 in Acre, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, had settled in the Baltic area in the early 1400s with the intention spread the word of Christianity among the pagan tribes in the region, and to Poland and Lithuania beyond. However, the people of these lands did not want to hear the message and tried to defend their lands from Catholic colonisation. The Slavs, the Poles, led by King Władysław II and the Lithuanians, led by Grand Duke Vytautas, decided to fight this colonisation and Christianisation together and the they signed a treaty of intent. On July 15^th 1410, these allied nations defeated the German-Prussian Teutonic Knights in a fierce battle at Grunewald in Poland, most of whom were killed or taken prisoner. Mucha chose to depict the scene of the battle the following morning. The Polish king Wladyslaw stands, shell-shocked, in the middle of the body-strewn battlefield and covers his face in horror. His country may be free, but this freedom has come at a terrible cost.

The Slav Epic No. 11 After the Battle of Vítkov by Alphonse Mucha (1916)

The eleventh painting in the Slav Epic cycle, After the Battle of Vítkov, which Mucha completed in 1916, is once again focused on war and death on the battleground. The fact that it was painted during the First World War was probably Mucha’s own observation of the horrors of war and the bloody fighting in the trenches. Once again, it is all about Jan Huss, his execution in 1415 and the subsequent rise of the Hussites. King Wenceslas IV was the ruler of Bohemia from 1363 and was ruling at the time of Hus’ execution. He died in August 1419 and was succeeded by his brother Sigismund, King of Hungary. However, the Czech people, who held him accountable for the death of Jean Hus, refused to accept his claim to the throne. However, Sigismund had the powerful backing of the Catholic Church and the German army. Feeling all-powerful, Sigismund launched a crusade against the Hussite movement and succeeded in occupying Prague Castle where he was crowned king. The following year, the Hussites and Sigismund fought at Vítkov Hill on the outskirts of Prague. The Hussites were led by their military leader Jan Žižka, and together with the army of Hussite and they succeeded in defeating Sigismund and his men, forcing them to retreat which led to Sigismund’s abdication. Mucha’s depiction of the battle is a melodramatic one which portrays the solemn mass given by the priest that led the Czech soldiers from Prague. The priest holds up high, a receptacle in which the consecrated Host is exposed for adoration, known as a monstrance. He is surrounded by clergy who lie in supplication on the ground at the sight of the monstrance. In the beautifully depicted background, we see that the rising sun is piercing the clouds and generating an almost celestial spotlight on the figure of Jan Žižka, the victorious leader, who we see standing to the right of the composition. Lying on the ground of the battlefield we see the abandoned weapons of the conquered army. Look at the left foreground and you will see a mother nursing her child. She has turned her back on the religious celebration. Maybe she has a foreboding that her fellow countryfolk will suffer further bloodshed as the Hussite Wars continue. Little does she know the wars will last for another seventeen years.

The Slav Epic cycle no.12: Petr of Chelčice by Alphonse Mucha (1918)

The Slav Epic cycle No.12: Petr of Chelčice was completed by Mucha in 1918 and instead of this work depicting the brutality of war it tends to focus on the tragic results of war. In the case of Chelčický, Mucha was mainly intrigued by the radical political thinker’s uncompromising pacifism and principled rejection of any kind of physical conflict. It could well be that Alfonse Mucha wanted, through his paintings, to remind the world of the doctrine of pacifism and the teachings and principles of the Unity of the Brethren, also known as the Evangelical Unity of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. The Hussite movement was made up of several parts, one of which became known as the Unity of the Brethren. The roots of this radical and pacifistic branch within the early Hussite movement go back to its ideological father Petr Chelčický. Petr of Chelčice was a pacifist who came from Bohemia who was passionately opposed to any form of war and military action in the name of religion. Alphonse Mucha supported the beliefs of Chelčice’s and chose to depict the more sinister side of the Hussite Wars through his Slav Epic paintings and as is the case in this work, he concentrated, not on the glory of battle, but on the effect of war on the lives of innocent victims.

The painting is a story about the attack on the village of Vodňany (now in the southern Czech Republic) in 1420, by the Tabor army. The Taborites were a radical Hussite faction within the Hussite movement led by Jan Žižka. The village was then plundered and burned down. forcing the inhabitants to flee their homes, taking the bodies of the injured and dead to the nearby town of Chelčice. In the painting we see these grief-stricken and angry gathered around the bodies of their loved ones along with the few possessions that they have managed to bring with them. Petr Chelčicky, who stands at the centre of the composition with a Bible under his right arm, offers comfort to the victims and implores them not to give in to vengeance. In the background the sky is dark and smoke can be seen from the burning houses of the village of Vodňany

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.13 The Hussite King Jirí z Podebrad (1923)

After almost thirty years of war between the papal armies and the Hussites, the Papacy of Rome was forced to acknowledge the strength and determination of the Hussites and officially recognise the beliefs of the Utraquist Church in a treaty called the Basel Compacts. In the city of Jihlava, on July 5th 1436, the Compacts of Basel came into being. It was an agreement between the Council of Basel and the Utraquists, the moderate Hussites, which was ratified by the Estates of Bohemia and Moravia on 5 July 1436. The agreement authorized Hussite priests to administer the sacramental wine to laymen during the Eucharist. The Slav Epic’ cycle No.13: The Hussite King Jiří z Podĕbrad which Mucha completed in 1923 is all about the election in 1458 in Bohemia of its first native Czech king in around 150 years. He was Jiří z Podĕbrad, who proved to be an extremely popular ruler. In 1462, King Jiří sent a delegation to Rome to confirm his election and the religious privileges that had been granted to the Utraquist Church in the Basel Compacts. Not only did Pope Pius II refuse to recognise the treaty; he sent one of his cardinals back to Prague to order Jiří z Podĕbrad to ban the Utraquist Church and return the kingdom of Bohemia back to the rule of Rome.

In this painting, Mucha depicts the Prague visit of Cardinal Fantin’s to the royal court and his subsequent clash with King Jiři. Cardinal Fantin stands arrogantly in red robes as the king kicks over his throne in anger and defiance. His refusal to acknowledge the papal authority is met by awe and astonishment among the members of his court. In the right foreground we see a young boy looking out at us. He has slammed shuts a book entitled Roma, symbolising the period of cooperation with Rome had come to an end.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.14 The Defence of Sziget by Nikola Zrinski by Alphonse Mucha (1914)

For Alphonse Mucha’s No.14 in his Slav Epic’ cycle, entitled The Defence of Sziget by Nikola Zrinski we have move forward a century in Slavic history, to the year 1566. It was the year that the Turkish army advanced upon the city of Sziget in southern Hungary. Their aim was simple. They wanted to expand the Ottoman Empire eastwards. Under the leadership of the Croatian nobleman Nikola Zrinski, the inhabitants of Sziget and the surrounding area gathered within the city walls and closed the gates. They held the city walls for nineteen days until the Turkish soldiers finally broke down the fortifications. Zrinski refused to surrender to the Turks and tried to force their way out of the besieged city but despite his courageous efforts to push his he and his men were killed in a ferocious assault. When Zrinski’s wife Eva saw that the Turks had taken the city, she decided to set fire to the city walls, killing countless soldiers and for a time halting the Turks’ advance into Central Europe. The painting by Mucha depicts the actions of Eva to sacrifice the city and many of its inhabitants in order to protect her country from the Turks. A column of black smoke bellows up from the spot where she has thrown a burning torch. To the left of the column, the men prepare for the final assault while, to the right, the women attempt to hide from the Turks.

…………………………………….to be concluded

Alphonse Mucha. The Slav Epic Part 1.

During his time working on an Austro-Hungarian commission to paint the murals for the Bosnia-Herzegovina’s pavilion at the 1900 Paris World Fair, Alphonse Mucha had a dream that one day he would complete a series of paintings which would depict the true story of the struggle of the Slav people which would truthfully depict their history and civilisation through a series of twenty monumental paintings. His early research for his project began the year before the 1900 Paris World’s Fair and to do his research he travelled around the Balkans collecting stories and researching customs of the Slavic people. Many of the areas were that populated by the Southern Slavs, regions that had been annexed by Austria-Hungary two decades earlier. They were regions which now fall under the rule of countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and North Macedonia. It was during these early travels that Alphonse Mucha developed the inspiration for his new project – The Slav Epic, a true pictorial history of the Slavs.

Alphonse Mucha working on Slav Epic, no. 6, The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor

For his project to materialise Alphonse needed financial support and when he was in America between 1904 and 1909, he had received that from Charles Crane, a wealthy Chicago-based businessman and philanthropist who was extremely interested in the progress of political affairs in Eastern Europe and the ethos of the Slavonic people. The Slav Epic as it was known took Alphonse fifteen years to complete. In 1911 he started by renting a large spacious studio and an apartment in Zbiroh Castle in Western Bohemia which afforded him the space he needed to work on the giant canvases, some of which measured 6 metres by 8 metres. His plan was to produce twenty paintings depicting crucial episodes from the Slavic past, stretching from ancient times to the present day, ten canvases would represent episodes from Czech history and ten would focus on historical episodes from other Slavonic regions.

So, in the next three blogs I will discuss the twenty-painting series. I suppose I should apologise in advance if you feel they tend to be “history” blogs rather than art blogs but these twenty monumental works are history paintings and you need to understand what is being depicted by the artist.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.1 The Slavs in Their Original Homeland by Alphonse Mucha (1912)

Alphonse Mucha completed his first canvas in the series, which was entitled The Slavs in Their Original Homeland, in 1912. It was a monumental painting measuring 8.1 x 6.1 metres. The idea for this first of the series was to focus on the Slavic people in the 4th to 6th centuries. It was during this time that the Slavic tribes were agricultural folk who lived in the marshlands between the Vistula River, the Dnepr River, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea. Their villages were under endless assaults by Germanic tribes from the West who would burn their houses and steal their livestock.

The terrified couple (detail from The Slavs in Their Original Homeland)

In the foreground of the painting, we see a terrified couple, dressed in white, hiding in the bushes as their village burns on the horizon. They press themselves against the ground to avoid detection but the shrubland offers them little or no hiding place. They are the survivors of one of these attacks. Look at their facial expressions. Look how Mucha has depicted their terror and defencelessness as they look out at us, imploring our help. In the left background, flames from their burning homes can be seen rising into the star-covered sky. In the central background we see the depiction of the warring invaders who show no mercy as they slaughter the fleeing villagers, the females of the village are herded and will have to suffer the long and brutal journey to the slave markets. In the upper right of the painting, we see depicted a pagan priest with two youths by his side symbolising war and peace and these figures foreshadow the peace and freedom that will eventually come to the Slav people when they have battled for their rightful independence.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.2 The Celebration of Svantovít by Alphonse Mucha (1912)

The second painting in the series, The Celebration of Svantovit is all about the spreading out westwards of the Slav people. In the city of Arkona on the north east tip of the island of Rujana, which is the present-day German isle, Rügen, they built a temple, Jaromarsburg, dedicated to the Slavic pagan god Svantovít. It was situated at the tip of the Cape Arkona and was protected on three sides by cliffs and from the land side by a 25-metre-high Slavic burgwall. Every autumn pilgrims from as far as Spain would make a pilgrimage to the temple to celebrate the annual harvest festival. From around the 9^th century to the 12th centuries, the Jaromarsburg became a cult site for the Rani, a Slavic tribe, dedicated to their god Svantevit. In 1168 the Danish army attacked Rujana and destroyed the Slavic temple. When Mucha painted this work, the temple had developed mythical status and was looked upon as a symbol of former Slavic glory. Alphonse Mucha’s painting is not so much about the Slavic temple but about the pilgrims who visited the site and the impending doom. In the foreground, occupying a third of the space, we see the pilgrims dressed in white clothing. They seem quite unaware of what is going on above them. In the sky we see the gods who are besieged by the enemy who are being led by a pack of wolves. Some of the Slav gods in the upper central portion are bound, while others look distressed or hang their heads in sadness. Look how Mucha’s has contrasted the mood. The sky is dark and there is an ominous feel about it whereas the sun-soaked pilgrims are enjoying their arrival at the pilgrimage site heedless of the troubles that is about to befall them.

However, in the central foreground, one of the pilgrims, a young mother holding her child in her arms stares out at us. She looks distressed as though she alone is aware of the looming downfall of the city.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.3: Bishop Absalon topples the god Svantevit at Cape Arkona by Laurits Tuxen

In 1168, the Danes, commanded by King Valdemar I the Great and Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, attacked the island and destroyed the temple of Svantovít. Eventually, the Baltic region came under Germanic rule, and the pilgrimage site and Svantovít came to symbolise the former glory of the Baltic Slavs. A painting by Laurits Tuxen depicts a Christian Bishop overseeing the destruction of the pagan image during the purge of paganism and the supplanting it with Christian beliefs. Churches were established and the castle and its temple destroyed.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.3: Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia by Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha’s third painting of the Slav Epic series, which he completed in 1912, was the Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia, is populated with many figures and tells the story of Methodius and his brother Cyril who had translated the Bible into the Slavic language. The setting of the painting is Velehrad, a town which was once deemed the capital of the Slavic state of Great Moravia. The time of this gathering is somewhere around 880 AD. In an attempt to prevent the demise of the Slav language, Prince Rostislav commissioned two learned monks from Salonika, Cyril, and Methodius, to translate the Bible into Old Church Slavonic. This move was not popular with the German bishops and Methodius was summoned to Rome to stand up for the translation. He was successful and succeeded in securing Rome’s permission to continue his work. The pope appointed him archbishop of Great Moravia for his efforts. It was their translation of the bible which afforded the Slavic people the chance to read it.

Methodius and Cyril were instrumental in the survival of the Slavic tongue in centuries to come, and they became the Slav people’s most popular saints. In the painting we see Methodius, the bearded figure on the left, almost hidden behind a small tree. Two of his followers kneel either side of him, holding his hands.

Prince Svatopluk who was the successor of Prince Rostislav, sits on a throne to the far right of the depiction. He is listening carefully to a priest who stands before him reading out a letter from the Pope John VIII. Two German priests sit either side of Svatopluk. Their faces are shaded and almost hidden in darkness, and they can hardly hide their anger at what is going on. These Germans had been making their way through Moravia with the intention of eradicating the Slavic language for good. They wanted to force the Slavs to learn the German language if they wanted to practice Christianity. Floating above this scene, in the upper left corner, we have four members of the divine realm. We can see the Pope sitting on his throne. Beside him, sits the Byzantine emperor, who was the head of the Orthodox Church. Surrounding the great religious leaders are Slavs who had suffered forced Germanification and who now cry out for comfort. In the centre of this ethereal world, we see stylized images of Methodius and Cyril as Saints.

Represented in the top right of the painting are the stylised figures of rulers who supported the spread of Christianity in the Slavic language: Boris of Bulgaria and Igor of Russia and their wives. In the foreground, a figure of a youth with a clenched fist and a circle in his right hand symbolises the strength and unity of the Slav people.

Slav Epic No.4: Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria by Alphonse Mucha (1923)

The fourth painting in the Slav Epic cycle is entitled The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon. After the death of Methodius, around 885 AD, Prince Svatopluk withdrew his support for the Slavonic translation of the New Testament and banished his followers from Moravia. Fortunately, the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, who was known for his passion for Byzantine literature, gave them refuge and encouraged them to continue their work. In this painting, Mucha immortalises the expelled followers of the Slavonic liturgy in the Byzantine frescos that adorn the walls of the basilica. He places Tsar Simeon at the centre of the composition, communicating with his scholars and scribes in the foreground while the official members of the church and court are relegated to the background.

*The Slav Epic’ cycle No.5: King Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia by Albert Mucha (1924)*

Alphonse Mucha’s fifth painting in The Slav Epic series, King Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia, jumps ahead four hundred years from the previous work and is set in the second half of the thirteenth century. It features King Přemysl Otakar II of Bohemia. He had two nicknames; the Iron King for his military valour and the Gold King because of the vast fortune he had amassed from his silver and gold mines of Kutná Hora. More importantly, in the mind of Mucha, Otakar was responsible for instituting close links between the various Slavic monarchies in the 13th century which ultimately led to peace for future generations of Bohemians. The painting depicts the great ceremony held on the occasion of the marriage of his niece Kunhuta of Brandenburg to the son of Hungary’s King Béla IV and the king took the opportunity to invite various Slavonic rulers in the hope that the get-together would help forge lasting coalitions between all those who came to the grand ceremony. We see King Přemysl Otakar II greeting his guests as they arrive at the wedding. Stood at the centre of an opulent tent with a built-in chapel, the king holds hands with two guests in a gesture of friendship.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.6: The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor by Alphonse Mucha

Another grand ceremony is depicted in Alphonse Mucha’s sixth painting of the series. It is The Coronation of Serbian Tsar Štěpán Dušan as East Roman Emperor. Štěpán Dušan was responsible for expanding the Slavic territory in the 1300s and for establishing a code of law that was valid throughout his empire. In 1346, following successive military victories against the Byzantine Empire, he crowned himself Tsar of the Serbs and Greeks in Skoplje. In this work, Mucha depicts the procession following the Tsar’s coronation. Dušan stands in the middle of the procession with two men on either side holding regal robes. The procession is led by young girls in Serbian folk costume and their inclusion is thought to be Mucha’s belief that the younger generation will carry forward Pan-Slavic ideals.

The Slav Epic’ cycle No.7: Milíč of Kroměříž by Alphonse Mucha (1916)

The seventh painting of Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic series is dedicated to Jan Milíč of Kroměříž. He was a learned young theologian who held positions of responsibility in the church and the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV. He became disillusioned by the workings of the church and was horrified by the immorality and indulgences of the clergy. So much so, Milíč resigned from his duties and decided to devote the rest of his life to the city’s poor and speak out against the misdemeanours of the church. Legend has it that in 1372, by the sheer power of his oratory, Milíč managed to persuade an alleged three hundred prostitutes in Prague to repent, and on the site of a former brothel which was located in Konviktská Street, he, with the help of Charles IV, established a refuge for repentant sinners, a chapel and convent dedicated to Mary Magdalen. In the painting, Mucha depicts the building of the refuge for repentant prostitutes. Atop the structure we see the humble figure of Milíč, wrapped in a blue shroud with a long grey beard. He stands aloft alongside the structure’s architect, preaching to those down below. The repentant women replace their jewellery with white habits, signifying their newly found purity, whilst in the foreground, a woman in red is gagged to prevent her from gossiping.

…………………………………….to be continued.

Much of the information for this came from the excellent website The Mucha Foundation