Alfons Mucha - Forget "The Four Seasons"

Alfons Mucha is best known for his commercial art - posters of Sarah Bernhardt, The Four Seasons prints. These images have, for better or for worse, entered the popular consciousness as ideal for dormroom prints, stock decoration for cards and stationery, and even inspiration for tableware. But Mucha was much more than a graphic artist who sought to appeal to the world of marketing. The Czech painter was more interested in the spirituality of art, which is expressed most meaningfully in his existing non-commercial art.

Mucha's Slav Epic was intended to tell the history of the slavs in 20 enormous canvasses. This highly detailed series of paintings was nationalistic in nature and popular with the Prague locals. The Slav Epic scenes are, unfortunately, not exhibited at the Mucha Museum in Prague, even though Mucha considered them his masterpieces.

However, visitors to Prague can see his work in the stained glass windows of St. Vitus Cathedral. The historic cathedral, the most important in Prague, took 600 years to complete. If Mucha had been a lesser artist, it is doubtful that he would have a part of the construction of this iconic, historic structure.