{"id":133,"date":"2022-11-11T09:04:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/?p=133"},"modified":"2022-11-11T09:04:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:04:05","slug":"blog-post-3-alphonse-mucha-and-the-making-of-the-slav-epic-slovanska-epopej-%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/2022\/11\/11\/blog-post-3-alphonse-mucha-and-the-making-of-the-slav-epic-slovanska-epopej-%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #3 – Alphonse Mucha and the making of the Slav Epic (Slovansk\u00e1 epopej).\ufffc"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An older self-portrait by Mucha, 1907 Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Most of Alphonse Mucha\u2019s popular legacy is deep-seated into his famous Parisian posters of beautiful women posing for theatrical and commercial purposes\u2026 But,\u00a0Mucha personally felt he was truly meant to create more meaningful art than just those works. He had always wanted to try Historical painting, and wanted to complete a series to display the accomplishments of Slavic Peoples in Europe throughout history since he was young. Once he had the ideas for this great project, he went to take photographs and sketches in Slavic countries like Russia and Poland to the Balkans in 1908 and 1909.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I will be able to do something really good, not just for the art critic but for our Slav souls.”\u00a0<\/em>– writing from Alphonse Mucha to his wife in 1910.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Slav Epic<\/em> displayed many patriotic messages , He wanted to make sure that these pieces properly respected and celebrated the great historical achievements of the Slavic Peoples, Including Czechs, Russians, Poles, Serbs, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and the Balkans, not to forget the Orthodox monasteries of Mount Athos. Once he received funding for this great project from millionaire and revolution promoter Charles R. Crane, Mucha continued to create the twenty mural-sized (measured six by eight meters) paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic peoples. To paint them, he rented and lived in an apartment and a studio in the Zbiroh Castle in western Bohemia until 1928 when he finished. He had help from many costumed models, using both still and motion picture cameras to set the scenes with his models, and encouraged them to create their own poses. It took him 16 years to fully complete them all. He bestowed them to the city of Prague in the same year and they received great praise.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Modelling for No. 9 The Meeting at Kr\u01d0\u017eky<\/em>\u00a0
by Alphonse Mucha, 1914\/1915<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In the late 1939, fascism was already starting to rise in popularity. German troops marched into Czechoslovakia and Mucha, a Slavic Nationalist and a Freemason, was among the first people to be arrested by the Gestapo. A lung infection started to affect him during the intense arrestment and interrogation process. When they released him, he never recovered from the poor conditions of his internment and also seeing his home invaded and overcome. He died in Prague on July 14, 1939 of pneumonia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mucha being known best for his work in the Art Nouveau movement was something he wasn’t a very big fan of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is it, Art Nouveau<\/em>?\u201d…\u201cArt can never be new.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Alphonse Mucha, a quote from his biographer and son, Ji\u0159\u00ed Mucha.
He instead took the greatest pride in his work as a history painter for The Slav Epic<\/em>, which he considers his greatest masterpiece and is the work that is most spiritually tied to him and his birthplace. The pieces were rolled and stored away to be protected from the Nazis  for twenty-five years before being shown at the chateau in Moravsk\u00fd Krumlov, the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic in 1963. The pieces are currently being moved to be displayed in the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Savarin opening later in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No.1 The Slavs in Their Original Homeland<\/em>\u00a0(1912)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 2 The Celebration of Svantov\u00edt<\/em>\u00a0(1912)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 3 Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia<\/em>\u00a0(1912)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No.4 Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria<\/em>\u00a0(1923) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 5 King P\u0159emysl Otakar II of Bohemia<\/em>\u00a0(1924)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 6 The Coronation of Serbian Tsar \u0160t\u011bp\u00e1n Du\u0161an<\/em>\u00a0(1926) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 7 Mil\u00ed\u010d of Krom\u011b\u0159\u00ed\u017e<\/em>\u00a0(1916)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 8 Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel: Truth Prevails<\/em>\u00a0(1916)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 9 The Meeting at K\u0159\u00ed\u017eky (1916)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 10 After the Battle of Grunewald<\/em>\u00a0(1924)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 11 After the Battle of V\u00edtkov<\/em>\u00a0(1916) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 12 Petr of Chel\u010dice<\/em>\u00a0(1918)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 13 The Hussite King Ji\u0159\u00ed z Pod\u0115brad<\/em>\u00a0(1923)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 14 \u00a0Defense of Sziget against the Turks by Nicholas Zrinsky<\/em>\u00a0(1914)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 15 he Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivan\u010dice<\/em>\u00a0(1914)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 16 Jan Amos Komensk\u00fd<\/em>\u00a0(1918)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 17 \u00a0The Holy Mount Athos<\/em>\u00a0(1926) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 18 The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree<\/em>\u00a0(1926)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No. 19 The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia<\/em>\u00a0(1914)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0No.20:\u00a0The Apotheosis of the Slavs, Slavs for Humanity<\/em>\u00a0(1926)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Information Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlphonse Maria Mucha Biography in Details.\u201d Alphonse Maria Mucha Biography With All Details<\/em>, 2002, https:\/\/www.alfonsmucha.org\/biography.html<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikimedia Commons. \u201cAlphonse Mucha.\u201d Wikipedia<\/em>, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Nov. 2022, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alphonse_Mucha<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout Alphonse Mucha.\u201d Serpent Publishing<\/em>, 2022, https:\/\/serpentpublishing.com\/about-alphonse-mucha.html#the-slav-epic<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of Alphonse Mucha\u2019s popular legacy is deep-seated into his famous Parisian posters of beautiful women posing for theatrical and commercial purposes\u2026 But,\u00a0Mucha personally felt he was truly meant to create more meaningful art than just those works. He had always wanted to try Historical painting, and wanted to complete a series to display the… Continue reading Blog Post #3 – Alphonse Mucha and the making of the Slav Epic (Slovansk\u00e1 epopej).\ufffc<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14527,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ides_141_survey_and_principles_of_design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/andypoystila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}