Exhibition of the Slav Epic

Exhibition of the Slav Epic
Colour lithograph, 1928–1930
This poster was produced to announce the first exhibition of the completed Slav Epic cycle and its official transfer to the City of Prague as a donation by the artist. The exhibition was held at the Trade Fair Palace in Prague in the autumn of 1928, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Czechoslovakia, and in Brno in 1930. As the model for the poster, Mucha used his daughter, Jaroslava, posing as the allegory of music (thus playing a stringed instrument), a motif taken from the 18th canvas in the series, The Oath of Omladina under the Slavic Linden Tree. The mythical figure in the background is the pagan god Svantovit, whose three faces represent the past, the present and the future. He carries two of his emblems—the sword and the drinking horn.