Prague, April 16 (CTK) – Roughly 250 artefacts, posters, drawings, paintings, books and photos covering the work by Czech Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha will be put on display at an exhibition that starts in the Compleso del Vittoriano gallery in Rome, organiser Pavlina Stranska has told CTK.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a project of the Slav Epic cycle by Mucha (1860-1939).
At the end of April, another exhibition of Mucha’s art will start. It will show his famous theatre posters assembled by former Czechoslovak tennis star Ivan Lendl.
Now it is owned by the Richard Fuxa Endowment. On April 29, it will be exhibited in the Doge’s Palace in Genoa, Stranska said.
Out of the collection of 116 posters, 90 will be presented along with further Art Noveau artefacts from various foreign owners, she added.
Fuxa would like the collection to be exhibited permanently in Prague.
The exhibition in Rome, prepared by Mucha’s Foundation, will last until September 11, Stranska said.
“The whole exhibition will accentuate six aspects of Mucha’s personality: a Czech man, the creator of paintings for people, a cosmopolitan man, a mystic, a patriot and a philosopher,” Simona Kordova, from the Foundation, has told CTK.
Mucha has gained most fame by his giant Slav Epic cycle.
The Slav Epic, that Mucha painted at the Zbiroh chateau for 18 years from 1910, consists of 20 large paintings inspired by Slav mythology and history of the Czech nation.
Within preparations, Mucha extensively travelled in Russia, Poland, Serbia and Bulgaria where he took a number of photos.
The seven biggest canvases measure 8.1 metres times 6.1 metres. They include Slavs in their Original Homeland, The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy in Great Moravia and Master Jan Hus Preaching in the Bethlehem Chapel.
The smallest oil paintings measure 4.8 metres times 4.05 metres. They include After the Battle of Vitkov Hill, The Hussite King George of Podebrady and Apotheosis of the Slavs.
