Allegory of Christ blessing the Slavic nations. Stained glass window created in 1930 by Art Nouveau and Art Deco artist, Alphonse or Alfons Maria Mucha (1860-1939), in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czechia / Czech Republic. In the centre of the window, dressed in red, is Czech patron saint Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, shown as a boy praying with his grandmother, St Ludmila. Below Ludmila, in turquoise, is ’Slavia’, female personification of the Slavic people, who was also included by Mucha as an emblem of Banka Slavie, the financial institution that funded this artwork.
Prague, Czechia / Czech Republic: vivid stained glass designed in 1930 by influential Art Nouveau and Art Deco artist Alphonse Mucha glows in a Gothic window of the New Archbishop’s Chapel off the north nave of the Cathedral of St Vitus. The window, installed in 1931, is an allegory of Christ blessing the Slavic nations. The central panels feature Czech patron saint Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, depicted as a boy kneeling in prayer with his grandmother, St Ludmila, and also scenes from the lives of ‘Apostles to the Slavs’ Saints Cyril and Methodius, sent by a Byzantine emperor to the Slavs of the Moravian region in the 9th century AD. Cyril and Methodius encouraged the spread of Christianity and culture by translating books of the Bible into the Old Church Slavonic language understood by ordinary Slavs, and by devising Glagolitic script, a Slavic alphabet used to transcribe them. The window also includes a female ‘Slavia’ figure above a written tribute to Banka Slavie, which funded Mucha’s artwork. Alphonse or Alfons Maria Mucha (1860-1939) was a prolific painter, illustrator and graphic artist. He lived in Paris in the Art Nouveau period, producing illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels and designs. He was best known at that time for his stylised theatrical posters of French actress Sarah Bernhardt. After returning to his homeland aged 43, Mucha devoted himself to painting his Slav Epic masterpiece, 20 monumental canvases depicting the history of the Slavic people that are now in the National Gallery in Prague.
Size: 2592px × 3872px
Location: Cathedral of St Vitus, Hradčany, Prague, Czechia / Czech Republic
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, 1930s, 1931, 20th, alfons, allegory, alphonse, archbishops, art, artist, arts, banka, bohemia, bohemian, boy, cathedral, century, chapel, christian, christianity, colored, coloured, czech, czechia, , deco, duke, emblem, glass, grandmother, kerr, king, logo, ludmila, maria, modern, mucha, nationalism, nations, painted, patron, people, prague, religious, republic, saint, slav, slavia, slavic, slavie, slavs, sponsorship, st, stained, terence, turquoise, vitus, wenceslas, wenceslaus, window
