The Brethren School in Ivančice (1914), the fifteenth canvas in Mucha’s Slav Epic according to the Foundation’s individual catalogue.
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by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
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The Brethren School in Ivančice: Mucha’s Gift of Language
Sunlight fills a walled town, and learning takes place beneath the trees. A young man reads to an older figure in the left foreground; farther back, people gather around books and a printing press. Alphonse Mucha made The Brethren School in Ivančice the fifteenth canvas of his Slav Epic. The Mucha Foundation dates the finished painting to 1914 and gives its historical subject as 1578, the year the Brethren's press moved from Ivančice to nearby Kralice.[1][3]
The title often used for this page, The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice, needs care. The press and scholarship grew in Ivančice, Mucha's birthplace. The six-volume Bible that took Kralice's name was printed after the move, between 1579 and 1594.[3] Mucha brings these connected moments together to show how teaching, translation and print helped a community carry its language forward.
At a Glance
- ArtistAlphonse Mucha
- CycleThe Slav Epic, No. 15 of 20[1]
- Foundation titleThe Brethren School in Ivančice, the Printing of the Czech Bible. God Gave Us the Gift of Language (1578)[1]
- Painting date1914, for the finished canvas[1]
- Mediumegg tempera on canvas[1]
- Dimensions610 × 810 cm, for the finished canvas[1]
- Historical focusthe Brethren's Ivančice school and press, associated with the 1578 move to Kralice[1][3][4]
The fifteenth Epic canvas in Mucha’s career
Contents
- Mucha’s home town and the Brethren
- A school, a press and a translation
- The work behind the printed page
- The young reader and the older man
- A visitor under the shelter
- Two towns, surviving traces
- Autumn light and a longer future
- Looking again
Mucha’s home town and the Brethren
Ivančice was Mucha's birthplace. In the painting he looks back to a sixteenth-century centre of the Unity of the Brethren, a reforming Christian community formed in Bohemia in the fifteenth century. The Foundation links its educational ideals to the teachings of Jan Hus and Petr Chelčický.[1] Rather than showing another battle or public ceremony, Mucha fills this canvas with the work of a school and a press.
The City of Ivančice places the Brethren complex in the area still called Ve Sboru. It included a school, workshops and a printing house, with Jan Blahoslav resident there from 1558 to 1571.[4] Prague City Gallery reads the outdoor gathering in Mucha's picture as a class at that site.[2] The town wall and church tower behind it give the community a specific home, while the open foreground draws the viewer among people learning together.
That setting is a historical reconstruction. The city's heritage guide records that much of the sixteenth-century complex has disappeared or changed.[4] Mucha's bright view is a way of imagining Ivančice's past, not a measured picture of its surviving buildings. Its beauty matters because the painting is also about what a community stands to lose.
The site's surviving traces are more specific than the painting's imagined townscape. The city dates the Brethren's purchase of a building in Ve Sboru to 1539 and the adjoining church to after 1540. It also records a school, workshops and the archive of the wider Unity of the Brethren there. A separate academy occupied another building in Ivančice from 1577, with the former Wittenberg rector Esrom Rüdinger among its staff. Mucha's open-air lesson is therefore a way of condensing an educational network, not evidence that every classroom met beneath those particular trees.[4][8]
A school, a press and a translation
The Brethren founded a press in Ivančice in 1562. The Moravian Museum connects it to the humanist bishop Jan Blahoslav and records his Czech New Testament printed there in 1564.[3] Translation was part of a larger culture of teaching and bookmaking. According to Charles University's biblical encyclopedia, Blahoslav formulated principles for translation in his Czech grammar, and work on the Old Testament began in Ivančice in 1577 under his pupil Ondřej Štefan. Blahoslav had died in 1571, so the later six-volume project was a collective undertaking rather than a book he completed alone.[6] The Gallery points to the school, the books examined under the shelter and a printing machine at the far right of the canvas.[2]
The machine is small in the overall composition. It does not dominate the page like a monument. Instead, Mucha gives as much space to readers, children and teachers as to the equipment itself. The book's importance lies in use: someone makes it, someone studies it, and someone reads its words aloud to another person. The activity spreads across the scene rather than belonging to one inventor or ruler.
The press itself was an investment before it was a symbol. The Moravian Museum says that in 1562 the Ivančice congregation bought equipment from Alexander Oujezdský, a printer working in Poland, at Blahoslav's urging.[3] Printing gave the Brethren a way to prepare texts for their own congregations. The museum lists hymnals, prayer books, polemical and instructional writing alongside biblical work, and notes German-language books for German-speaking members.[3] Books did not flow from one machine toward a single homogeneous Czech public. They served a community with several uses for text and more than one language.
In spring 1578, the press moved to Kralice for safety and under the protection of the Žerotín family.[3] Charles University's encyclopedia names Jan the Elder of Žerotín, Karel's father, as a principal patron of the costly Bible project.[6] The Moravian Museum dates its six volumes to 1579–1594.[3] The sixth volume bears 1593 on its title page, but the university reference says a dated final vignette shows printing continued into summer 1594.[6] That explains why 1593 and 1594 both appear in descriptions, rather than making them dates for different completed Bibles.
The Foundation's subtitle uses 1578 as the canvas's historical hinge.[1] That year explains the link between the two towns; it should not be read as the publication date of the completed six-volume Bible. Mucha's composition joins the Ivančice school and press to the later book that became known as the Bible of Kralice.
The work behind the printed page
The Charles University reference names several translators known from other records, including Mikuláš Albert of Kamének, Lukáš Helic, Jan Eneáš, Izaiáš Cibulka, Jiří Strejc, Jan Efraim, Pavel Jessen and Jan Kapito. It cautions that the Bible's own preface does not name them and that the division of labour is poorly documented.[6] Listing a team is more accurate than imagining one author at a desk, but assigning a particular painted figure to one of these scholars would go beyond the evidence. The painting concentrates on a shared practice of reading rather than a historically labelled group portrait.
Their scholarship was international in its sources. The university reference says the Old Testament translators consulted the Antwerp Polyglot, printed in 1568–1573, alongside other Hebrew, Greek and Latin editions. That book brought multiple biblical languages and study aids together; it helped the Brethren compare words before deciding how to express them in Czech.[6] The finished work was thus neither a simple copying of an earlier Czech Bible nor an effortless move from speech to type. Training, a library, translation decisions, revision and printing all lay behind the pages Mucha lets his figures handle.
The six-volume edition was also built as a tool for study. Its main text had margins for commentary, book summaries and outlines to guide the reader, while numbered verses aided reference. According to Charles University, the commentary was intended to help congregations and preachers who lacked other theological books.[6] Such features change how one understands the quiet foreground exchange: reading aloud might carry the words to a listener, but the printed volume also offered teachers a way to navigate, explain and revisit them. Mucha's book is small in the scene; the work of making it useful was extensive.
The young reader and the older man
At the left front, the nearest pair forms a quiet scene within the larger one. A youth holds a text beside an older seated man. The Foundation describes the youth reading to him; the Gallery identifies the listener as blind and sees a likeness of Mucha in the young reader.[1][2] Those details are institutional readings of a figure group, not documentary proof that Mucha inserted a literal self-portrait.
The accomplishment behind this imagined scene was not simply putting familiar words on paper. The Brethren assembled scholars trained in the original biblical languages and drew on Hebrew and Greek texts and contemporary reference editions. The university encyclopedia describes the six-volume publication as the first complete Czech Bible translated from the original languages.[6] Its margins carried extensive commentary to help readers and preachers interpret the text. A shorter one-volume edition without those notes followed in 1596 for wider use.[6] These are different readerships and formats within the same printing culture.
The Brethren revised again for a 1613 one-volume edition. Charles University says that this later text became the basis for modern editions; it should not be confused with a complete reprint of the six volumes and their margins.[6] The difference matters for a painting about endurance. What survived through later readers was often a revised biblical text in a more portable form, while the original scholarly apparatus had a more restricted history. The “gift of language” in the subtitle is therefore a process of continued editing and circulation, not one unchanging book.[1][6]
The pair makes the meaning of printed language immediate. A book can travel through a voice to someone who cannot see its pages. The young man's face turns outward, connecting that exchange to the viewer. The Foundation reads his expression as a warning of the persecution the Brethren would later face.[1] In the picture itself, the mood is less certain than the sunshine behind him: attention and worry occupy the same small space.
The foreground also changes the scale of the story. The Bible's later cultural influence is large, but Mucha does not leave it as an abstract national achievement. He puts a reader and listener close enough for us to imagine the time it takes to make meaning from a page. The painting's claim for language begins with that human exchange.
A visitor under the shelter
Prague City Gallery identifies the seated visitor under the right-hand shelter as Karel the Elder of Žerotín, a later patron of the Brethren, and a resting woman nearby as his wife.[2] This identification helps explain the scene's mix of scholarship and protection. Yet it cannot be treated as a photograph of one day in 1578. The Bibliothèque nationale de France dates Karel's birth to 1564: he was only thirteen or fourteen in the year named by the canvas subtitle.[5]
That age makes an adult patron visiting with his wife in 1578 chronologically implausible. Nor should he be confused with his father Jan, whose Kralice estate sheltered the press and who supported the Bible project.[3][6] Mucha appears to have brought people and activities from different phases of Brethren history into one idealised setting, or the Gallery's exact figure identification may be uncertain. The picture can still honour the community's supporters without requiring every figure to have stood together at the moment the press moved.
The shelter's calm arrangement contrasts with the reader's uneasy expression. It presents books as objects worthy of attention and patronage, while the foreground hints that their future will be contested. Both readings are visible within the scene; neither turns the painting into a literal record of a single visit.
Two towns, surviving traces
Archaeology helps hold the painting's two locations apart. A museum account of work at Ivančice reports the discovery of part of the Brethren church, a well and book fittings and type associated with the old complex.[9] At Kralice, excavations at the former fortress found more than 4,000 pieces of original printing type and bookbinding ornament, according to a 2022 Moravian Museum archaeological study.[10] Those are material traces of the two sites and of printing activity, not evidence that the press at the edge of Mucha's painting reproduces a particular machine.
The Kralice study also warns that many excavated objects lack detailed find-context documentation, which limits exact dating and reconstruction.[10] That caution is useful when looking at the calm garden scene. Historians can locate buildings, presses and books more securely than they can restore a single afternoon of conversation. Mucha uses the setting to make a chain of learning visible; the surviving type gives that chain a physical anchor without turning the canvas into an archaeological plan.
Autumn light and a longer future
The Gallery interprets the sunny autumn and fruit trees as signs of a productive time after earlier religious conflict. It also reads swifts near the church tower as a suggestion of the Brethren's later journeys and exile after the 1620 Battle of White Mountain.[2] These details belong to Mucha's retrospective story. They ask a viewer to see a flourishing school with knowledge of the ruptures that followed.
The press's own history continued beyond the scene. Charles University's encyclopedia says its equipment was hidden after 1622, then moved to Leszno in 1629, where printing resumed until a fire in 1656.[6] The Moravian Museum's German account also notes that the Kralice shop printed teaching materials and other works alongside religious books.[7] The Bible was the best-known result of a wider institution, and its later survival and reuse cannot be reduced to the peaceful day Mucha imagined.
The National Library of the Czech Republic displayed original Kralice prints, older Czech Bible translations, foreign-language sources, type found at the Kralice fortress and rare proof sheets from a Brethren hymnal in a 2013 exhibition.[11] The variety of those objects is a reminder that translation, typesetting, correction and circulation all left different kinds of evidence. The library also showed copies with old bindings from noble collections, including the Žerotíns'. That surviving ownership history gives a material setting to patronage, even though it cannot confirm the Gallery's identification of the visitor under Mucha's shelter.[2][11]
Autumn light softens the city wall, and the paths across the grass keep the groups visually connected. The press sits at the edge, but the learning it represents is everywhere: in the class, the books examined by adults and the foreground reading. Mucha makes continuity feel fragile. A community may move a machine, leave a town or lose buildings, while words survive through copying, teaching and use.
The finished canvas was painted in 1914, more than three centuries after the 1578 move.[1][3] Its date should be kept distinct from the history it depicts. The work remembers Ivančice through the later achievement of Kralice and through Mucha's own attachment to his birthplace. Its title's gift is language sustained by people who learn, print and share it.
Looking again
Begin with the young reader at left, then follow the paths through the outdoor school toward the shelter and the distant press. The painting links private reading to a larger network of education and production. Its bright townscape can seem peaceful, but the stern foreground face and the Gallery's reading of the departing birds bring a later history into view.[1][2]
The Brethren School in Ivančice is therefore both a scene of local pride and a deliberately compressed account of cultural endurance. The 1578 subtitle marks a turning point between towns; the 1914 canvas brings a wider history into one autumn day. Recognising that compression makes the painting clearer: Mucha is celebrating a living practice of language, not illustrating the exact moment a completed Bible left a press.[1][3]
Watch: Alphonse Mucha
Place Mucha’s Czech and Slavic projects beside his better known Paris work.
Prague’s Art Nouveau, Mucha, and the Slav Epic
A short view of Mucha’s Prague legacy and the Slav Epic cycle.
Watch on YouTubeArtworks directory
| Name | Date | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| 'Accept Love and Enthusiasm from Your Son, Mother of the Holy Nation': study for the mural 'By Own Strength III' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Pencil and charcoal on canvas |
| 'By force towards freedom, with love towards unity!': study for the mural 'By Own Strength II' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Pencil and charcoal on canvas |
| 'The Passing Wind Takes Youth Away': design for a fan and the façade of the 'Pavilion of Man' (unrealised) | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| 'Through humiliated and tortured, you will live again, my country!': study for the mural 'By Own Strength II' at the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Pencil and charcoal on canvas |
| 1918-1928: Poster for the 10th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Czechoslovakia | 1928 | Colour lithograph |
| 6th Sokol Festival | 1912 | Colour lithograph |
| 8th Sokol Festival | 1925 | Colour lithograph |
| After the Battle of Grunwald | 1924 | egg tempera on canvas |
| After the Battle of Vitkov Hill | 1923 | egg tempera on canvas |
| Age of Love | 1936–1938 | |
| Age of Reason | 1936–1938 | |
| Age of Wisdom | 1936–1938 | |
| Amants | 1895 | Colour lithograph |
| Apotheosis of the Slavs | 1926 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| As Hamlet | 1899 | colour lithograph |
| Au Quartier Latin | 1898 | Magazine cover |
| Banknotes of Czechoslovakia, designed by Mucha: 500 crown; 50 Crown; 10 Crown | 1929 | Banknotes |
| Bieres de la Meuse | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Biscuits Champagne Lefevre Utile | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Biscuits Lefevre Utile | 1896 design for 1897 calendar; Foundation object/Carnavalet 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Blessed are the Pure in Heart | 1906 | Printed magazine illustration |
| Bleu Deschamps | 1903 (deposit) | Colour lithograph |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina Pavilion - illustration featured in 'Le Figaro Illustré' (1 March 1900) | 1900 | Reproduction from Le Figaro Illustré after watercolour original |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: cartoon for the mural 'The Roman Period and the Arrival of the Slavs' | 1899-1900 | ink and crayon on paper |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: fragment of the upper frieze featuring Ivo and Anica, characters from Bosnian legends | 1899-1900 | tempera and watercolour on canvas |
| Bosnian Legends: Death of Hasanaga's Bride | 1899 | Charcoal on paper |
| Bosnian Legends: Murcia - The Plague Lady | 1899 | Charcoal on paper |
| Bosnian Pavilion Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition 1900: design for the menu | 1900 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Boutique Fouquet (interior design) | 1901 | Shop interior design |
| Boutique Fouquet: sketches of the shop's signboard and decorative details | c.1900 | Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper |
| Box for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Gaufrettes Vanille | c.1900 | Tin box covered with lithographed label |
| Box for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Madère | c.1900 | Tin box covered with lithographed label |
| Brightness of the Day | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Broach with Pendant | 1900 | Gold, ivory, mother-of-pearl and semi-precious stones |
| Byzantine Head - The Blonde | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Byzantine Heads (pair) | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Byzantine Heads: Brunette | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Bénédictine | 1898 (BnF deposit); Hamburg 1899; MNAC 1896 or 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Champagne Ruinart | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Chocolat Ideal | before or in 1897 (catalogue conflict) | Colour lithograph |
| Chocolat Masson (1897 calendar) | 1896–1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Choirboys at Petrov Church, Brno | 1905 | Watercolour on cardboard |
| Cloches de Noel | 1900 | Illustrated book |
| Comedy: study for a mural for the German Theatre, New York | 1908 | Oil on canvas |
| Cours Mucha: poster advertising Mucha's art classes held at the Académie Colarossi, Paris | 1900 | colour lithograph |
| Creative Force - Jan z Pernštýna: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Oil on canvas |
| Crucifixion | c.1868 | Pencil, crayon and watercolour on paper |
| Cycles Perfecta | 1897 or 1902 (catalogue conflict) | Colour lithograph |
| Dance | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Dead Couple - Abandoned | c.1899-1900 | Charcoal and pastel on blue paper |
| Defense of Sziget against the Turks by Nicholas Zrinsky | 1914 | egg tempera on canvas |
| Design for a champagne poster | c. 1896 | Charcoal and pastel on paper |
| Design for a display stand at the Paris Exhibition 1900 | c.1899-1900 | Pencil and wash on paper |
| Design for Champagne Ruinart | c. 1896 | Pencil, watercolour and gold leaf on paper |
| Design for the cover of the magazine 'Fantaz' | 1882 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| Design for the heading of the cover of the magazine 'Krokodil' | 1885 | Pen and ink on cardboard |
| Design for the poster for the Mucha Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, January-February 1921 | 1920 | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Designs for cutlery | c.1900 | Charcoal and white on card |
| Designs for tableware | c.1900 | Charcoal, coloured pencil and white on card |
| Diadem for 'La princesse lointaine' | 1895 | metal and pearls |
| Diploma of Ivančice: Mock diploma honouring a local celebrity, with illustration of the first line of 'May', a poem by Karel Hynek Mácha | 1882 | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: designs for a watch and accessories (unused) | 1901-1902 | Pencil, ink and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 25, featuring studies of lily | 1901-1902 | Pencil on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 43 | 1901-1902 | Pencil, ink and wash, heightened with white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 49 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 50 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 60 | 1901-1902 | Pencil, ink and wash, heightened with white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 63 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 67 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 71 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: final study for Plate 72 | 1901-1902 | Pencil and wash, heightened with white on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: line drawing for Plate 33, featuring lily motifs | 1901-1902 | Pencil, pen and ink on paper |
| Documents décoratifs: Plate 54 | 1902 | Lithograph |
| Dreaming of Freedom: study for a Panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Dusk | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Evening | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| F. Champenois (Rêverie imprint) | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| F. Guillot-Pelletier calendar (1898) | 1897–1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Feather | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Figures décoratives: final study for Plate 2 | 1904-1905 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Figures décoratives: final study for Plate 3 | 1904-1905 | Pencil and white on paper |
| Figures décoratives: final study for Plate14 | 1904-1905 | Pencil with white on paper |
| Figures décoratives: sketch study for Plate14 | 1904-1905 | Blue pencil on paper |
| Flirt Lefevre Utile | 1899 (Foundation design); BnF legal deposit 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| Flower | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Flower: final study for decorative panel | 1897 | Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper |
| France Embraces Bohemia | 1918 | oil on canvas |
| Fruit | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Georges Fouquet (1858-1929), Paris, after design by Mucha: Ornamental Chain with pendants | 1900 | Gold, enamel, fresh-water pearls, mother of pearl and semi-precious stones |
| Georges Fouquet (1858-1929), Paris, after Mucha design: 'Peacock' Ring (Exhibited at the Paris Exhibition 1900) | 1900 | Opal and gold |
| Girl Weeping | c.1899-1900 | Black chalk and pastel on paper |
| Girl with Loose Hair and Tulips | 1920 | Oil on canvas |
| Gismonda | 1894 | Colour lithograph |
| Head of a Girl, statue for the stand of the Houbigant Perfumery at the Paris Exhibition 1900 | 1900 | Bronze, silver and parcel gilt |
| Head of Sarah Bernhardt: Study for 'Lorenzaccio' | 1896 | Pencil on paper |
| Heather from Coastal Cliffs | 1902 | Colour lithograph |
| Heidsieck & Co | 1901 | Colour lithograph |
| Holy Mount Athos | 1926 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| Ilsée, Princesse de Tripoli | 1897 | Illustrated book |
| In the Desert: Study for an illustration for the Světozor magazine | 1889 | Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper |
| Incantation (Salammbô) | 1897 | Lithograph |
| Independence - Jiří z Poděbrad: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Oil on canvas |
| Interior and furniture designs | c.1900 | Pencil on paper |
| Interior of Boutique Fouquet: design for a wall-mounted display cabinet with statuette and mirror | c.1900 | Pencil on paper |
| Interior of Boutique Fouquet: design for the fireplace with statuettes, mirror, and the ornamental details of the wall | c.1900 | Pencil and watercolour on cardboard |
| Interior of Boutique Fouquet: sketches of the fireplace with statue, mirror, display cabinet, and the ornamental details of the wall | c.1900 | Pencil, pen and ink on paper |
| Ivy | 1901 | Colour lithograph |
| Jan Milic of Kromeriz | 1916 | egg tempera on canvas |
| Jaroslava and Jiří, the Artist’s Children | 1918 | Oil on canvas |
| JOB poster | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Judgement of Paris (calendar for Vieillemard printing company) | 1895 | Colour lithograph |
| Justice - Master Jan Hus: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Oil on canvas |
| L'Annee Qui Vient | 1897 | red chalk on paper |
| L'Illustration magazine - cover for Christmas 1896/1897 | 1896 | Magazine cover |
| L'Illustré Soleil du Dimanche | 1897 | Magazine cover |
| La Dame aux Camélias: designs for cover and interior of special programme | 1896 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| La Nature | 1899-1900 | Bronze and amethyst |
| La Plume | 1897 | Magazine cover |
| La Samaritaine | 1897 | colour lithograph |
| Lance Parfum Rodo | 1896; Albertina print c. 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| Laurel | 1901 | Colour lithograph |
| Le Monde Illustré | 1900 | Magazine cover |
| Le Pater | 1899 | Illustrated book |
| Le Pater: early study for the 1st allegorical scene 'Our Father who art in Heaven' (1899) (Mucha Foundation object 300) | 1899 | Pencil on paper |
| Le Pater: early study for the 1st allegorical scene 'Our Father who art in Heaven' (1899) (Mucha Foundation object 302) | 1899 | Pastel on paper |
| Le Pater: study for the 6th allegorical scene 'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors' | 1899 | Charcoal and ink wash on paper |
| Lefevre Utile | 1904 | Advertisement |
| Leslie Carter | 1908 | Colour lithograph |
| Letem Českým Světem | 1898 | Printed book |
| Lorenzaccio | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Luchon poster (attributed to Mucha) | 1895 | Colour lithograph |
| Madonna of the Lilies | 1905 | Tempera on canvas |
| Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel | 1916 | egg tempera on canvas |
| Maude Adams | 1908 | Lithograph, hand-coloured in watercolour and gouache |
| Maude Adams as Joan of Arc | 1909 | Oil on canvas |
| Medea | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Menu for the Bosnian Pavilion Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition 1900 | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| Militancy - Jan Žižka: study for a pendentive of the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Oil on canvas |
| Military Camp in Winter, near a City on Fire | c.1899-1900 | Pastel on paper |
| Moet et Chandon | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Monaco Monte Carlo | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Moon | 1902 | |
| Moravian Teachers' Choir | 1911 | Colour lithograph |
| Morning Alphonse Mucha Painting / AlphonseMucha.org | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Morning Star | 1902 | Colour lithograph |
| Moët & Chandon White Star | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Mrs Mucha’s Necklace | 1906 | gold, enamel and semi-precious stones |
| Mural for the Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion: The Roman Period and the Arrival of the Slavs | 1900 | tempera and watercolour on canvas |
| Murals by Mucha in the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům (Municipal House), Prague (1910-1911) | ||
| Music | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Nativity | c. 1934 | oil on canvas |
| Nestle's Food for Infants | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Night | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Nude on a Rock | 1898-1899 | Bronze |
| Official Banquet of the Paris Exhibition 1900: design for the menu featuring a fashionable woman wearing a Mucha-style jewellery | 1900 | Pencil, gouache and wash on grey paper |
| Ornamental motifs designed for 'Combinaisons Ornementales se Multipliant à l'Infini à l'Aide du Miroir' (1901) | c.1900-1901 | Blue and red pencil on paper |
| Packaging for 'Savon Mucha Violette' | 1906 | Colour lithograph |
| Packaging for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits: Boudoir | 1901 | Colour lithograph |
| Page's Costume: study for an illustration for 'Le Costume au Théâtre' | 1890 | Pencil and watercolour on cardboard |
| Painting | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Peonies | 1897–1898 | Ink and watercolour |
| Petr Chelcicky at Vodnany | 1918 | egg tempera on canvas |
| Poetry | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Portrait of Jaroslava | c.1927-1935 | Oil on canvas |
| Portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia | 1908 | Oil and tempera on canvas |
| Portrait of Marie Chytilová (Maruška), Mucha's Future Wife | 1903 | pastel on paper |
| Portrait of Mucha's Sister, Angela | c.1880 | Oil on canvas |
| Portrait of Mucha's Sister, Anna | c.1885 | Oil on canvas |
| Portrait of Mucha's Son, Jiří | 1925 | Oil on canvas |
| Portrait of Mucha's Wife, Maruška | 1908/17 | Oil on canvas |
| Portrait of Woman | c. mid 1910s - 1925 | Blue pastel on grey paper |
| Poster for 'Hommage Respectueux de Nestlé' (the Nestlé Company's tribute to Queen Victoria's 60th Jubilee) | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'Imprimerie Cassan Fils' | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| JOB poster (1898) | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'La Dame aux Camélias' | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'La Tosca' | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'Regional Exhibition at Ivančice 1913' | 1912 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'The Slav Epic Exhibition, Brno, 1930' | 1928-1930 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for 'Waverley Cycles' | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for the 'Lottery of the Union of Southwestern Moravia' | 1912 | Colour lithograph |
| Poster for the Austrian Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition 1900 | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| Prague Subjugated: study for a Panel of the Small Reception Room at the Lord Mayor’s Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Primrose | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| Primrose and Feather (paired image) | 1899 | Colour lithographs (paired image) |
| Princess Hyacinth (Princezna Hyacinta) | 1911 | Colour lithograph |
| Print proof for the Biscuits Lefèvre-Utile tin | 1899 | Lithograph |
| Reverie | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| Russia Restituenda [Russia Must Recover] | 1922 | Colour lithograph |
| Salome | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Salon des Cent | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| Salon of the Hundred | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Sarah Bernhardt - La Princesse Lointaine - Lefevre Utile | 1903 | Colour lithograph |
| Sarah Bernhardt as La Princesse Lointaine: poster for 'La Plume' magazine | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Sarah Bernhardt in the role of the Duc de Reichstadt in L’Aiglon | 1900 | Pencil on paper |
| Sarah Bernhardt: study of her full-standing figure | c.1896 | Pen and ink on paper |
| Savonnerie de Bagnolet calendar | 1898 (calendar) | Printed advertising calendar |
| Self-portrait (1899) | 1899 | Oil on board |
| Self-portrait (1907) | 1907 | Blue and white crayon on blue Ingres paper |
| Self-portrait, sketching in his apartment, Paris | late 1880s | oil on canvas |
| Sketches of flowers for Documents décoratifs | c.1900-1901 | Pen and ink on paper |
| Slavia insurance poster | 1907 | Poster |
| Slavs in their Original Homeland | 1912 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| Snake Bracelet with a Ring | 1899 | Gold, enamel, opal, ruby and diamond |
| Société Populaire des Beaux Arts | 1897 | Colour lithograph |
| Song of Bohemia | 1918 | oil on canvas |
| St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring SS Cyril and Methodius | 1931 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring St. Ludmila | 1931 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| St. Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the central panels, featuring St. Wenceslas (Duke of Bohemia) kneeling next to his Grandmother, St. Ludmila | 1931 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| St.Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the bottom left panels | 1931 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| St.Vitus Cathedral Stained-glass Window, Prague: final design for the bottom right panels | 1931 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| Stained-glass Window designed by Mucha at St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague | Early 1930s | N/A |
| Study for 'The Age of Reason' | 1936-1938 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic cycle' No.19: The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia | 1913-1914 | Watercolour and gouache on paper |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.14: The Sacrifice at Szigetvár by Nikola Zrinski | c.1913-1914 | Photographed drawings stuck together, tinted with watercolour and gouache |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.17: The Holy Mount Athos (1926) | c.1925-26 | Charcoal heightened with white on cardboard |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.18: The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree | c.1925-1926 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.1: The Slavs in Their Original Homeland (1912) | c.1910-1912 | Oil on canvas |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.2: The Celebration of Svantovít | c.1910-1912 | Oil on canvas |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.7: Jan Milíč of Kroměříž | c.1915-1916 | Oil on canvas |
| Study for 'The Slav Epic' cycle No.9: Master Jan Hus Preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel. The Magic of the Word: Truth Prevails (1412). | c.1915-1916 | Oil on canvas |
| Study for 'The Three Ages' triptych: Reason, Wisdom and Love [unfinished project] | 1936-1938 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Study for 'Woman in the Wilderness' (c. 1922-1923) (Mucha Foundation object 315) | c. 1922-1923 | oil on canvas |
| Study for 'Woman in the Wilderness' (c. 1922-1923) (Mucha Foundation object 316) | c. 1922-1923 | oil on canvas |
| Study for Savon Notre Dame | c. 1896 | pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Study for the poster 'Russia Restituenda [Russia Must Recover]' | 1922 | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Study of a Male Nude | 1885-1887 | Oil on canvas |
| The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia | 1914 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| The Arts (series) | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| The Arts: study for 'Dance' | 1898 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| The Arts: study for 'Music' | 1898 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| The Arts: study for 'Painting' | 1898 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| The Arts: study for 'Poetry' | 1898 | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
| The Bohemian King Premysl Otakar II | 1924 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon | 1923 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Burr McIntosh Monthly, 1907 | 1907 | Magazine cover |
| The Celebration of Svantovit | 1912 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dusan as East Roman Emperor | 1923 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Devil and Mr Twardowsky: study for an illustration for 'The Tale of Pan Twardowsky' (a variation of 'Faust') | c.1887-1888 | Charcoal on paper |
| The Flowers (series) | 1898 | Colour lithographs |
| The Flowers: Carnation | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| The Flowers: Iris | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| The Flowers: Lily | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| The Flowers: Rose | 1898 | Colour lithograph |
| The Hussite King Jiri of Podebrady | 1923 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy | 1912 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Last Days of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius) in Naarden | 1918 | Egg tempera on canvas |
| The Light of Hope | 1933 | Oil on canvas |
| The Meeting at Krizky | 1916 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Months (January-June) | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| The Months (July-December) | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| The Moon and the Stars (four-panel montage) | 1902 | Colour lithographs (four-panel montage) |
| The Moon and the Stars (series) | 1902 | Colour lithograph |
| The Moon and the Stars: study for 'The Evening Star' | 1902 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| The Moon and the Stars: study for 'The Pole Star' | 1902 | Ink and watercolour on paper |
| The New York Daily News art supplement | 1904 | Printed art supplement |
| The Oath of Concord of the Slavs (unfinished) | 1939 | oil on canvas |
| The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree | 1926, unfinished | Egg tempera on canvas |
| The Precious Stones (four-panel montage) | 1900 | Colour lithographs (four-panel montage) |
| The Precious Stones (series) | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Precious Stones: Amethyst | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Precious Stones: Emerald | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Precious Stones: Ruby | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice | 1914 | egg tempera on canvas |
| The Seasons (series) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons (series) (1900) | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons (variation in screen format) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Autumn (1896) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Autumn (1900) | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Spring | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Spring (1896) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Summer | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Summer (1896) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Winter | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| The Seasons: Winter (1896) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| The Slavonic Concord: study for the ceiling painting for the Lord Mayor's Hall, Obecní Dům, Prague | 1910-1911 | Oil on canvas |
| The Threat | 1912 | Colour lithograph |
| The Times of the Day (series) | 1899 | Colour lithograph |
| The West End Review | 1897 (Foundation); 1898 promotional cover | Colour lithograph |
| Thistle from the Sands | 1902 | Colour lithograph |
| Théâtre de la Renaissance: design for poster advertising Sarah Bernhardt's theatre | c.1895 | Pen and ink on paper |
| Tin for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits | 1899 | Circular tin with lid and handle; colour print on metal |
| Topaz | 1900 | Colour lithograph |
| Tragedy - study for a mural for the German theatre New York | 1908 | Oil and tempera on canvas |
| Trappistine Liquors | 1897 | colour lithograph |
| Wiener Chic | 1905 | Magazine cover |
| Woman in the Wilderness | 1923 | Oil on canvas |
| Woman masked in white head-scarf - study for the illustration of the Bosnia & Herzegovina Pavilion featured in 'Le Figaro Illustré' (1 March 1900) | 1899 | Pencil and wash heightened with white on paper |
| Woman with a Daisy - textile designed by Mucha | 1900 | Printed upholstery fabric |
| Zdenka Cerny | 1913 | Colour lithograph |
| Zodiac (La Plume calendar) | 1896–97 | Colour lithograph |
| Zodiac (textless decorative panel) | 1896 | Colour lithograph |
| ‘At the sight of the two storks the owl rose.’ Study for an illustration for Contes de Grand-mères | 1891 | Watercolour and gouache on paper |
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Mucha paint The Brethren School in Ivančice?
Was the Bible of Kralice printed in Ivančice in 1578?
Who is the young reader at the left?
Discussion
Mucha connects an outdoor school, reading and printing across a sunny townscape.
The foreground reader brings the large history of the Bible down to one exchange.
Reader Insights
Where does your eye first settle in this crowded scene?
What does the young reader add to the story of printing?
How do the school, shelter and distant press relate to one another?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice about learning, reading and printing in the scene.
References
- Mucha Foundation, “The Slav Epic cycle No. 15: The Brethren School in Ivančice,” object 226, finished-canvas identity, medium, dimensions and interpretation. View source.
- Prague City Gallery, “The Printing of the Bible of Kralice — Brethren School in Ivančice,” illustrated story presented through Google Arts & Culture, based on the 2022 Moravský Krumlov exhibition catalogue. View source.
- Moravian Museum, “The Art of Printing and the Brethren Press in Kralice,” exhibition history and chronology. View source.
- City of Ivančice, “Bratrský sbor,” municipal heritage guide for the Ve Sboru complex. View source.
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record for Karel the Elder of Žerotín, birth and life dates. View source.
- Charles University, Protestant Theological Faculty, “Kralická Bible,” biblical encyclopedia entry on translators, source languages, print sequence, commentary, patronage and later editions. View source.
- Moravian Museum, German-language Kralice Bible Memorial history, on the press's religious, secular and educational output and later language legacy. View source.
- City of Ivančice, municipal heritage guide, “Průvodce památkami města,” on the academy building, Esrom Rüdinger and the wider Brethren complex. View source.
- Muzeum Brněnska, “Archeologické léto: Bratrský sbor a tiskárna,” summary of excavated Ivančice structures and objects. View source.
- Zdeňka Měchurová, “Kovové předměty z archeologického výzkumu tvrze v Kralicích nad Oslavou,” Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae sociales 107.2 (2022), pp. 181–226, abstract on original type and archaeological dating limits. Journal abstract.
- National Library of the Czech Republic, 2013 annual report, p. 88 of PDF, “Bible kralická / 1613–2013” exhibition and original objects. Annual report.
