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On Tidbits of an Epic

An art exhibition was near our hotel in Prague. An exhibition that we never knew. An exhibition that tells an important story that we knew nothing about. A story that is important to not only the Czech people, but one for an entire culture – so we went.

Czechs revere Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). My recent stained glass post included some of Mucha’s work at St. Vitas Cathedral in Prague.

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From 1910 to 1928, Mucha created 20 paintings on very large canvases celebrating more than a thousand years of Slav history known as The Slav Epic. That was the exhibition close to the hotel – but with only 11 of the canvases.

Each canvas (some 18’ x 24 ‘ – 6m x 8 m) depict important events in Slav history – celebrations, battles, coronations, and religion. I admit knowing very little about this, and the exhibition reinforced that.

Here are three images I took at the exhibition. Below them are resource links to several videos and websites for those who want to know more.

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Resources to Learn More

 

40 thoughts on “On Tidbits of an Epic”

  1. That was interesting! I loved his stained glass window last week and am pleased to see and hear a little more about his work. Those pieces from the last 18 years of his life are really astounding. I was looking at how he uses the back, middle and foregrounds to great effect especially. Having the history of the works explained was also helpful as my general Eastern European history is sorely lacking. Thanks Frank, I really enjoyed perusing this post.

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  2. I must say that although I have a decent overall knowledge of history, I know very little about Eastern Europe. You’ve provided some excellent resources to aid in learning more, and I will enjoy them!

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  6. Cincy,

    I pored through more stained glass works from around the world after reading your post last week. After which I googled paintings of historic events throughout history. And it made me think about how today’s events would be depicted in paintings. We would call it the Absurdist Period . . .
    Thank you for the addendum to your post!

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  7. I loved the stained glass, and the epic paintings are remarkable. I only watched the first video, but I liked how they mounted the huge canvases so that visitors could walk behind and see the artist’s notes written on the back.

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  10. When were you in Prague. We went to Europe for the first time a few months ago. Berlin, Prague and Vienna. Prague was incredible, but I got sick our first day there and didn’t do much the rest of our trip.

    I’d go back to wander the Old Town area again.

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