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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2015
Not very often does a work of art, which provoked very mixed reactions at the time of its completion, continue to stir the political and cultural waters nearly one hundred years later. The Slav Epic, a series of twenty large canvases created by Alfons Mucha (1860–1939) between 1909 and 1926 on the topic of Slavic history and myth, is such a work, and it has provoked critical comments from Czech art historians, politicians, and journalists. The most recent disputes, which have arisen in the last couple of years, concern the city council of Prague, which has expressed a wish to house the work somewhere in Prague in fulfillment of the artist's wishes, and the town of Moravský Krumlov in Mucha's home region, where the Epic was exhibited for forty years and lays claims to it as well. The debate about its physical location has also been joined by a number of public figures, including Mucha's grandson and the secretary to the then Czech president Václav Klaus, who called the Epic “the kitsch of the millennium” and “sheer Pan-Slavic propaganda.” Such negative comments only highlight the fact that the Slav Epic continues to generate controversy and has not yet found its place in the Czech, let alone European, context.
1 In this article, I retain the Czech spelling of the artist's first name, as opposed to the Francophone version Alphonse. Mucha was born in Ivančice, a little town in southern Moravia. He trained in a decorations workshop Kautcky und Burghart in Vienna, studied art in Munich (1883), and arrived in Paris in 1886. He made several trips to the United States between 1904 and 1921 and eventually settled in Bohemia around 1910. For Mucha's biographic details, see, for example, Mucha, Alphonse Maria Mucha; Sayer, Derek, The Coasts of Bohemia, A Czech History (New Jersey, 1998)Google Scholar; Ulmer, Renate, Alfons Mucha (Cologne and London, 1994)Google Scholar; Dvořák, Anna, Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Graphic Works (London, 1980)Google Scholar.
2 Ladislav Jakl, “Co se Slovanskou epopejí? Někam dobře schovat [What with the Slav Epic? Hide it Well Somewhere],” blog.idnes.cz, http://jakl.blog.idnes.cz/c/149043/Co-se-Slovanskou-epopeji-Nekam-dobre-schovat.html.
3 Stanislav Kostka Neumann, “Otevřená okna [Open Windows],” Lidové noviny [The People's Gazette], 9 Aug. 1913, 1; Teige, Karel, Jarmark umění [A Jamboree of Art] (Prague, 1964), 45Google Scholar.
4 Louise James Bargelt, “Paintings Given to Prague Shown at Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 30 May 1920, E5; “Mistr Alfons Mucha,” Národní listy [The National Paper], 26 June 1926, 3.
5 Arwas, Victor, et al. , Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau (Alexandria, 1998)Google Scholar; Sylvestrová, Marta and Šembera, Petr, Alfons Mucha, Český mistr Belle Epoque [Czech Master of the Belle Epoque] (Brno, 2009)Google Scholar; Mucha, Sarah, ed., Alphonse Mucha (London, 2000)Google Scholar; Srp, Karel, eds., Das Slawische Epos (Krems, 1994)Google Scholar; and, most recently, Bydžovská, Lenka and Srp, Karel, eds., Alfons Mucha. Slovanská epopej [Alfons Mucha. Slav Epic] (Prague, 2012)Google Scholar.
6 Arwas, Alphonse Mucha.
7 Sylvestrová and Šembera, Alfons Mucha.
8 Tschudi-Madsen, Stephan, Art Nouveau (London, 1967)Google Scholar; Schmutzler, Robert, Art Nouveau (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Selz, Peter Howard and Constantine, Mildred, Art Nouveau: Art and Design at the Turn of the Century (New York, 1960)Google Scholar, Sterner, Gabriele, Art Nouveau = Jugendstil = Modern Style (Munich, 1977)Google Scholar; Reade, Brian, Alphonse Mucha (London, 1963)Google Scholar.
9 Jeremy Howard, review of The Spirit of Art Nouveau, by Arwas, Victor, Brabcová-Orlíková, Jana, Dvořáková, Anna, Journal of Design History 12, no. 2 (1999): 179–81Google Scholar; Clegg, Elizabeth, Art, Design and Architecture in Central Europe, 1890–1920 (New Haven, 2006)Google Scholar; Sayer, The Coasts of Bohemia; Husslein-Arco, Agnes, Gaillemin, Jean Louis, Hilaire, Michel, and Lange, Christiane, eds., Alfons Mucha (Vienna, 2009)Google Scholar.
10 Bydžovská and Srp, eds., Alfons Mucha.
11 The Slavs in Their Homeland, painted in 1911 (representing the Slavs being threatened by Germanic tribes), Svantovít's Celebration at Ruyana, 1912 (a depiction of a pagan ritual from a pre-Christian period) and The Introduction of Slavic liturgy in Great Moravia, 1912 (by two Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius in 863).
12 Defence of Sziget by Nicolas Zrinsky against the Turks, 1914 (representing a resistance to a Turkish attack by a Croat nobleman in 1566), Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria, 1923 (an enlightened emperor of the Bulgarian kingdom in the ninth and tenth century), the Coronation of Tsar Stephan Dušan of Serbia, 1923 (a fourteenth-century king who ruled over a large empire), The Battle of Grunwald, 1924 (depicting the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic war of 1410), Mount Athos—The Vatican of the Orthodox Church, 1926 (showing the interior of a Greek Orthodox church with church goers, priests, and saints) and the Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, 1914 (referring to the Emancipation Reform of 1861).
13 These works include the paintings After the Battle of Vítkov, 1923 (depicting a scene after a victorious battle of the Hussites over the Emperor Sigismund in 1420), the Sermon of Jan Hus in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, 1916, and Meeting at Křížky, 1916 (of a celebrated gathering of the Hussites in 1419).
14 King Ottokar II of Bohemia, 1924 (known as the Golden and Iron King who in the thirteenth century founded many new towns and considerably extended the Bohemian kingdom), The School of the Moravian Church in Ivančice, 1914 (the birthplace of a first Czech-language translation of the Bible, the Kralice Bible, and the birthplace of Mucha himself), Jan Milíč of Kroměříž, 1916 (a fourteenth-century priest shown building an asylum for fallen women), Petr Chelčický, 1918 (a fifteenth-century religious leader in Bohemia who promoted nonviolence and communal living), King George of Poděbrady, 1923 (a fifteenth-century king of Bohemia, elected after the death of Sigismund, shown negotiating with a papal legate), The Last Days of Jan Amos Komenský, 1918 (the writer, educator, and Moravian Church priest, Komenský was exiled as Protestant during the Thirty Years' War, after the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620).
15 This is the unfinished Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree, 1926 (a late-nineteenth-century progressive political movement Omladina in Bohemia) and the final Apotheosis of the Slavic History, 1926.
16 Hlavačka, Milan, Orlíková, Jana, and Šembera, Petr, Alfons Mucha—Paříž 1900. Pavilon Bosny a Herzegoviny na světové výstavě [Alfons Mucha—Paris 1900. The Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Exhibition] (Prague, 2002), 42Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., 45.
18 Ibid., 45.
19 Jana Brabcová-Orlíková, “Mucha: Bohemia and Paris,” in Arwas, et al., Alphonse Mucha. The Spirit of Art Nouveau, 26.
20 Laclotte, Michel, ed., Alfons Mucha 1860-1939 (Prague, 1980), 45Google Scholar.
21 Unowsky, Daniel, The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism: Imperial Celebrations in Habsburg Austria, 1848–1916 (West Lafayette, 2006), 107Google Scholar and 110. Schnitzer, Ignaz et al. , Franz Joseph und Seine Zeit (Vienna, 1989)Google Scholar.
22 “The German Theatre in New York,” Architectural Record 24, no. 6 (December 1908): 408–16Google Scholar, quoted in Anna Daley, Alphonse Mucha in Gilded Age America 1904–1921 (MA thesis, Smithsonian Institution and Parsons the New School for Design, 2007), 55. The Theatre, however, closed down only eight months after reopening with Mucha's decorations.
23 Alfons Mucha, Autobiography, archive, sheet 4.
24 Clegg, Art, Design and Architecture, 158. Prahl, Roman, “Umění, město a národ v symbolické dekoraci. Umělecká výzdoba Obecního domu [The Arts, the City and the Nation and Symbolic Decoration. The Artistic Decoration of the Municipal House],” Město a jeho dům. Kapitoly ze stoleté historie Obecního domu hlavního města Prahy (1901–2001) [The City and Its House. Chapters from the One-hundred Years of the Municipal House of the Capital of Prague (1901–2001)], ed. Svatošová, Hana (Prague, 2002), 97Google Scholar. On the German Casino, see esp.: Cohen, Gary, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914 (Princeton, 1981)Google Scholar.
25 Brabcová, Jana, “Opožděné poselství [A Belated Message],” in Alfons Mucha, 1860–1939, ed. Laclotte, Michel (Prague, 1980), 93Google Scholar. Cf. also Sayer, Coasts of Bohemia, 161–62.
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27 “Slavnostní otevření Obecního domu města Prahy,” [The Official Opening of the Municipal House of the Capital of Prague] Národní listy [The National Paper] 347, 16 Dec. 1911, 1.
28 Agnew, Hugh, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Stanford, CA, 2004), 153Google Scholar. Cf. Also: Gary Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914, 170–80.
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31 Karel B. Mádl, “Muchovy studie [Mucha's Studies],” Národní listy 169 (20 June 1915): 9.
32 “Případ Muchův [The Case of Mucha],” Styl. Časopis pro architekturu, umělecká řemesla a úpravu měst [Style. Magazine for Architecture, Applied Arts, and Urbanization] II (1910): 16–17 Google Scholar.
33 Cf. Rakušanová, Marie, Bytosti odjinud. Metamorfózy akademických principů v malbě první poloviny 20. století v Čechách [Beings from Nowhere. Metamorphoses of Academic Principles in the Painting of the First Half of the 20th Century in Bohemia] (Prague, 2008)Google Scholar; Marta Filipová, “National Treasure or a Redundant Relic: The Roles of the Vernacular in Czech Art,” RIHA Journal 0066 (26 Feb. 2013), available at www.riha-journal.org/articles/2013/2013-jan-mar/filipova-national-treasure-or-a-redundant-relic.
34 Fronek, Jiří, Artěl. Umění pro všední den, 1908-1935 [Art for Everyday Use, 1908–1935] (Prague, 2009)Google Scholar. Vendula Hnídková, “Rondocubism versus National Style,” in RIHA Journal 0011 (08 Nov. 2010); www.riha-journal.org/articles/2010/hnidkova-rondocubism-versus-national-style/; Hubatová-Vacková, Lada, Silent Revolutions in Ornament: Studies in Applied Arts and Crafts 1880–1930 (Prague, 2011)Google Scholar.
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36 Cf. Parsons, Ilona Sármány, “The Image of Women in Painting: Clichés and Reality in Austria Hungary, 1895–1905,” in Rethinking Vienna 1900, ed. Beller, Steven (New York and Oxford, 2001), 240Google Scholar.
37 Clegg, Art, Design and Architecture, 113. Cf. Also: Musilová, Helena, ed., Joža Uprka, Evropan Slováckého venkova. 1861–1940 [Joža Uprka, A European of the Moravian Slovak Countryside, 1861–1940] (Prague, 2011)Google Scholar.
38 Giustino, Cathleen M., “Rodin in Prague: Modern Art, Cultural Diplomacy and National Display,” Slavic Review 69, no. 3 (2010): 591–619 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sawicki, Nicholas, “Rodin & the Prague Exhibition of 1902: Promoting Modernism & Advancing Reputations,” Cantor Arts Center Journal 3 (2002–2003): 185–97Google Scholar.
39 Mucha, Jiří, Alfons Mucha (Prague, 1982).Google Scholar
40 Giustino, “Rodin in Prague,” 602.
41 Alfons Mucha, “Curriculum vitae,” manuscript, National Museum Archives, Hn 88, sheet 5.
42 Alfons Mucha, “Curriculum vitae,” sheet 5, and Mucha, Alfons, Tři projevy o životě a díle [Three Talks on Life and Work] (Brno, 1936)Google Scholar.
43 Mucha, Tři projevy, 10.
44 Ibid., 9.
45 Ibid.25.
46 Ibid., 9.
47 On the nineteenth-century art of Bohemia and its link to national identity, see, for example, contemporary texts: Tyrš, Miroslav, “O Josefu Mánesovi [On Josef Mánes],” in Dra Miroslava Tyrše úvahy a pojednání o umění výtvarném I [Dr Miroslav Tyrš's Deliberations and Discussions of the Arts], ed. Tyršová, Renata (Prague, 1901)Google Scholar; Žákavec, František, Knížka o Alšovi [A Book on Aleš] (Prague, 1912)Google Scholar; Mádl, Karel Bartoloměj, Umění včera a dnes [The Arts Yesterday and Today] (Prague, 1904)Google Scholar. Recent literature includes: Urban, Otto M., “The Beginnings of Modern Art History and Art Criticism in the Czech Lands,” Centropa 5, no. 1 (2005): 40–48 Google Scholar; Filipová, Marta, “The Construction of a National Identity in Czech Art History,” Centropa: A Journal of Central European Architecture and Related Arts VIII, no. 3 (2008): 257–71Google Scholar; Sayer, The Coasts; Nešlehová and Lahoda, eds., Dějiny českého výtvarného umění IV; Kimball, Stanley Buchholz, Czech Nationalism: A Study of the National Theatre Movement, 1845–83 (Urbana, 1964)Google Scholar.
48 Mucha, Alfons, “Vzpomínka na L. Marolda [Remembering L. Marold],” in Maroldovo panorama bitvy u Lipan [Marold's Panorama of the Lipany Battle] (Prague, 1932), 6Google Scholar.
49 Žákavec, František, “Slovanský program výtvarný [The Slavonic Artistic Program],” Volné směry I (1919–1920): 56 Google Scholar.
50 Rakušanová, Bytosti odjinud, 34–35.
51 Makała, Rafał, Organisty, Adam, eds., Metafora i mit. Motywy literackie i historyczne w sztuce polskiej przełomu XIX i XX wieku [Metaphor and Myth. Literary and Historical Motifs in Polish Art at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century] (Szczecin, 2007), 71–72 Google Scholar; Crowley, David, National Style and Nation-State: Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival to the International Style (Manchester, 1992), 6Google Scholar.
52 Howard, Jeremy, East European Art: 1650–1950 (Oxford, 2006), 50Google Scholar.
53 Mucha, Tři projevy, 10.
54 Alfons Mucha, “A Speech Delivered at the Opening of the Exhibition of Posters in the Moravian Museum of Art and Design, Brno,” 3 Oct. 1936, in Tři projevy, 24–25.
55 Teige, Karel, “Poetismus,” Host 3, no. 9–10 (1923): 197–204 Google Scholar; Karel Teige, “Excerpts from Poetism Manifesto,” in Benson, Between Worlds, 593–601. Originally as Teige, Karel, “Manifest poetismu,” ReD 1, no. 9 (1928): 317–36Google Scholar.
56 Mucha, Tři projevy, 25.
57 Chytil, Karel, Muchova Slovanská epopej [Mucha's Slav Epic] (Prague, 1913), 7Google Scholar.
58 Alfons Mucha, Slovanská epopej (Moravský Krumlov, 1969), 8Google Scholar.
59 Parry, Albert, “Charles R. Crane, ‘Friend of Russia,’” Russian Review 6, no. 2 (1947): 24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
60 Ibid., 34.
61 Mucha, Alfons Mucha, 364.
62 Kovtun, George J., Masaryk and America: Testimony of a Relationship (Washington, 1988): viii–ix Google Scholar.
63 Mucha's several trips to the United States are examined in detail in Daley, Alphonse Mucha.
64 Art Supplement to the 3 Apr. 1904 edition of the New York Daily News, quoted in Daley, Alphonse Mucha, 10.
65 Louise James Bargelt, “Paintings Given to Prague Shown at Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune (30 May 1920): E5, quoted in Daley, Alphonse Mucha, 73.
66 Daley, Alphonse Mucha, 25.
67 Polášek, Albin and Čapek, Thomas, The Čechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic and Religious Life (Boston and New York, 1920), 234–35Google Scholar.
68 “Which Beauties Win—English or American?” The World Magazine, 19 Jan. 1908, 1; “American Women Perfect, Says Mucha,” New York World, 8 Apr. 1904.
69 The works from the Slav Epic featured at the exhibitions were Petr Chelčický, The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, Defence of Sziget by Nicolas Zrinsky, Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel, and Svantovít's Celebration.
70 Brintor, Christian, Historical Paintings of the Slavic Nations by Alfons Mucha (New York, 1921)Google Scholar, unpag.
71 Eleanor Jewett, “Group of Mucha's Mural Paintings Typifies Excellence,” Chicago Tribune, 27 June 1920, G6.
72 Mucha, Alfons Mucha, 270; Brooklyn Museum of Art, “William Henry Goodyear”; www.brooklynmuseum.org/research/digital-collections/goodyear.
73 Lears, T. L. Jackson, No Place of Grace. Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture 1880–1920 (New York, 1981)Google Scholar.
74 Originally as Johann Gottfried von Herder, “Deutsche Völker” and “Slawische Völker,” in Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit IV, book 16, 1791. English trans. in von Herder, Johann Gottfried, “Germans and Slavs,” in Pan-Slavism: Its History and Ideology, ed. Kohn, Hans (Notre Dame, 1953), 104Google Scholar. Cf. Gombocz, István, “The Reception of Herder in Central Europe: Idealisation and Exaggeration,” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 33, No. 2 (1997): 107–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
75 Herder, “Germans and Slavs,” 108. Trans. amended by the author.
76 Cf. Lenka Bydžovská and Karel Srp, “Das ‘Slawische Epos’: Wort und Licht,” in Alfons Mucha, ed. Agnes Husslein-Arco, 60.
77 Holý, Ladislav, Malý český člověk a velký český národ. Národní identita a postkomunistická transformace společnosti [The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. National Identity and the Post-Communist Transformation of Society] (Prague, 2001), 108Google Scholar. Cf. also: Pynsent, Robert, Pátrání po identitě [Questions of Identity] (Prague, 1996), 224–30Google Scholar. Cf. also: Barnard, Frederick M., “Humanism and Titanism: Masaryk and Herder,” Herder on Nationality, Humanity, and History (Montreal, 2003), 85–104 Google Scholar.
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85 Bydžovská and Srp, “Das ‘Slawische Epos’: Wort und Licht,” 60.
86 At the opening of the first exhibition in 1928, Mucha claimed: “In all the paintings I tried to avoid anything that could remind of the harsh disputes and of the spilt blood.” Quoted in Alfons Mucha, Slovanská epopej, 6.
87 Cf. Dusza, Erin, “Pan-Slavism in Alphonse Mucha's Slav Epic ,” Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide 13, 1 (2014)Google Scholar; http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring14/dusza-on-pan-slavism-in-alphonse-mucha-s-slav-epic.
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93 Quoted in Hantsch, “Pan-Slavism,” 33.
94 Derek Sayer, The Coasts, 151. See also: Fox, Abram, “‘A Permanent Motive Force of Indefatigable Effort’: Reframing the Role of Sokol in Czechoslovakia,” Centropa: Journal for Central European Architecture and Related Arts XII, no. 1 (2012): 20–32 Google Scholar; Nolte, Claire, The Sokol in the Czech Lands to 1914: Training for the Nation (New York, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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96 Masaryk was critical of Palacký's version of Czech history (or rather, its later misinterpretations), which in his view focused on a limited selection of events and issues and disregarded links with the wider history of Europe. Masaryk, Česká otázka. Naše nynější krize [The Czech Question. Our Present Crisis] (Prague, 1990), 180–81Google Scholar.
97 Štern, Evžen, Názory T. G. Masaryka [T. G. Masaryk's Views] (Prague: Grosman a Svoboda, 1910), 25Google Scholar. Cf. Masaryk, Česká otázka.
98 Orzoff, Battle for the Castle, 31.
99 Ronald F. Lipp and Suzanne Jackson, “The Spirit of Mucha,” in Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau, 14.
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102 Mucha's membership in the Freemasons is often seen as the main reason for his arrest and interrogations by the Gestapo in 1939, which are also related to his subsequent death.
103 Jana Šetřilová, “Alfons Mucha—Freiemauer,” in Das Slawische Epos [The Slav Epic], 156–57.
104 Mucha, Alfons, Poselství, které přinesl dne 18.června 1932 nejj., svrch. kom. Bratr Alfons Mucha ř. a d. Josef Dobrovský v or. Plzeň v den desátého výročí jeho založení [The Message Delivered on 18 June 1932 by Brother Alfons Mucha of the Josef Dobrovský Lodge at the Occasion of Its 10th Anniversary] (Plzeň, 1932)Google Scholar, unpag.
105 Šetřilová, “Svobodný zednář Alfons Mucha [Alfons Mucha, a Freemason],” Historický obzor [Historic Horizon] VII–VIII (1996): 178–82Google Scholar, at 178.
106 Chytil, Muchova Slovanská epopeje, 9.
107 Ibid., 10.
108 “Překlad darovací smlouvy mezi A. Muchou a Prahou [Translation of the Donation Agreement between A. Mucha and Prague]”; ihned.cz, http://zpravy.ihned.cz/c1-45265390-preklad-darovaci-smlouvy-mezi-a-muchou-a-prahou. Agreement: http://www.scribd.com/doc/34893407/Původni-dohoda-mezi-Muchou-a-Prahou.
109 “Muchova Slovanská epopej umístěna ve veletržním paláci [Mucha's Slav Epic Placed in the Trade Fair Palace],” Národní listy, 23 Aug. 1928, 3.
110 “Muchova ‘Slovanská epopej’ byla včera odevzdána veřejnosti [Mucha's ‘Slav Epic’ Was Handed over to the Public Yesterday],” Národní listy 68, no. 263, 22 Sept. 1928, 3.
111 Mucha, Alfons, Slovanská epopeje. Epopée slave. The Slavonic Epopee. Die Epopöe der slaven (Prague, 1928), 5–7 Google Scholar.
112 Milan Hodža quoted in “Slavnostní zahájení výstavy životního díla Alfonse Muchy Slovanská Epopej ve velké dvoraně Veletržního paláce v Praze [The Official Opening of the Exhibition of the Life Work of Alfons Mucha, the Slav Epic, in the Atrium of the Trade Fair Palace in Prague],” Pestrý týden, 29 Sept. 1928, 5.
113 “Muchova ‘Slovanská epopej,’” 3.
114 “Mistr Alfons Mucha [Master Alfons Mucha],” Národní listy (26 June 1926): 3.
115 “O tvůrci Slovanské epopeje,” [About the Author of the Slav Epic] Národní listy, 22 July 1940, 1.
116 Šetřilová, “Svobodný zednář,” 170.
117 “Art: Slav Epic,” Time, 26 Nov. 1928.
118 Ibid.
119 Žákavec, “Slovanský program,” 59.
120 Ibid., 65.
121 Laclotte, Alfons Mucha, 21.
122 Similarly, a girl in the bottom left corner of the Oath of the Omladina painting was adopted for the poster advertising the exhibition of the Slav Epic in Brno in 1930.
123 Josef Čapek, “Kam s ní? [What Shall We Do with It?]” Lidové noviny, 15 Nov. 1928, 2. The title of this article is a pun on a famous feuilleton of the same name (“Kam s ním?”) by the Czech journalist and essayist Jan Neruda (1834–1891), in which he described his misfortunes of trying to dispose of an old, unwanted mattress.
124 Čapek, “Kam s ní?” 2.
125 Viktor Nikodém, Národní osvobození, 21 Oct. 1928, reprinted in Volné směry XXVII (1929–1930): 37–38 Google Scholar.
126 Kropáček, Pavel, “Alfons Mucha,” Volné směry XXXV (1938–1940): 161 Google Scholar.
127 Ibid., 161.
128 Teige, “Nové umění a lidová tvorba [New Art and the Art of the People],” Červen IV (1921): 175 Google Scholar. Reprinted in Avantgarda známá i neznámá I. Proletářská poezie a poetismus [The Familiar and Unfamiliar Avant-garde I. The Poetry and Poetism of the Proletariat], ed. Vlašín, Štěpán (Prague, 1971), 150 Google Scholar; Teige, Jarmark umění, 45.
129 Teige, Jarmark umění, 48–49.
130 Hlaváček, Karel, “Alfons Mucha (souborná výstava jeho prací),” [Alfons Mucha (A Retrospective of Work)] Moderní revue pro literaturu, umění a život 4–5 (1897–99): 114–16Google Scholar.
131 Ibid., 115–16.
132 Ibid., 116.
133 S. K. Neumann, “Otevřená okna [Open Windows],” reprinted in Padrta, Jiří, ed., Osma a Skupina výtvarných umělců 1907–1917 [The Eight and the Group of Visual Artists 1907–1917] (Prague, 1992), 139Google Scholar.
134 Rudé právo [The Red Right], 27 July 1935, quoted in Mucha, Alfons Mucha, 423.
135 Alfons Mucha, Slovanská epopej, 3–4.
136 Ibid., 7.
137 “Slovanská epopej nezmizí. Výstava byla prodloužena na 2 roky [The Slav Epic Will Not Go Away. The Exhibition Extended for Another 2 Years],” Česká televize, 12 Dec. 2013; http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/kultura/254467-slovanska-epopej-nezmizi-vystava-byla-prodlouzena-na-2-roky.
138 “Alfons Mucha: The Czech Master of the Belle Époque” took place in Budapest between 21 Mar. and 7 June 2009 under the main title “In Praise of Women,” which was later dropped in Brno, 16 Oct. 2009–24 Jan. 2010. “Alfons Mucha, Master of Art Nouveau: A Retrospective,” in Die Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung Munich, took place between 9 Oct. 2009 and 24 Jan. 2010, and in Musée Fabre Montpellier between 20 June 2009 and 20 Sept. 2009, and in Belvedere, Vienna from 12 Feb.–1 June 2009. An exhibition “Das Slawische Epos” shown in the Kunsthalle, Krems in 1994 and its catalogue contain an extensive examination of the Epic and Mucha's background. See the catalogue: Srp, Karel, ed., Alfons Mucha: Das Slawische Epos (Krems, 1994)Google Scholar.
139 Bydžovská and Srp, eds., Alfons Mucha.
140 Kropáček, “Alfons Mucha,” 161.