Alfons Mucha

Alfons Mucha is to Prague what Antoni Gaudi is to Barcelona; one sees Mucha's work everywhere. We went to the Mucha Museum and to an exhibit at the Municipal House, and later, to the Slavic Epic in Moravsik Krumlov, in Moravia.

You may never have heard of Mucha, but

you have seen his work and that of many

imitators; the Style Mucha is nearly

synonymous with Art Nouveau...slinky

women, flowers, extravagant ornamentation

Typical

After a few years' struggle in Paris, he took

the arts world by storm--applied/commercial/

graphic arts--in the 1890s as the poster artist

for Sara Bernhardt; after that, nearly

everything bottled or packaged came to have

a Mucha design; champagnes, biscuit tins,

cigar boxes, you name it

The Mucha window in St. Vitus' Cathedral

Closer up; wildly successful as a commercial artist, he

devoted the second half of his life to nationalism and

"serious" art, painting the 20 massive canvasses of the

Slav Epic--we'll see later--this stained glass window

in St. Vitus', as well as currency, postage stamps, and

other items for the newly created post-WWI Czechslovakia

(the Hapsburgs had ruled Czechslovakia for centuries)