The Image of Homeland in the Works by Alphonse Mucha “Madonna of the Lilies”, the Poster for “The Lottery of the Union of Southwest Moravia” and the Poster for “The Slav Epic Exhibition”

Abstract

Understanding the specifics of creativity, the features of the artistic method of not a single artist can be achieved without a meaningful analysis of their works. The purpose of this study is to analyse three works by the Czech artist A. Mucha “Madonna of the Lilies”, the Poster for “The Lottery of the Union of Southwest Moravia” and the Poster for “The Slav Epic Exhibition”, to reveal the programmatic content of each of these works, as well as their general artistic idea. The works by A. Mucha were analysed using the method proposed and justified in the field of theory and history of culture by the Russian scientist V.I. Zhukovsky. This technique determined the logic of analysis of the selected works. Such methods as observation, formalisation, analysis, synthesis, analogy, extrapolation and interpretation were applied. The result of a methodical analysis of the three selected works by A. Mucha testifies to the programmatic creativity of the artist, to a single semantic regularity in his works. The key theme uniting all three works being analysed is the theme of divine patronage of the homeland (native land, people). However, the authors draw attention to a number of aspects of visualisation of this topic in each of the works. If the work “Madonna of the Lilies” expresses the idea of patronage in its very initial moment, the moment of faith in patronage coming from above, then in the poster of the lottery divine patronage becomes doubtful. Nevertheless, the analysis of the poster for “the Lottery of the Union of Southwest Moravia” revealed a number of artistic signs indicating the possibility of a revival of faith in patronage. Based on the interpretation of these signs, such conditions for the revival of faith as the lack of fear “to look and see, to fight” were formulated. Confirmation of the idea of revival is expressed in the third analysed work of the artist, i.e. the poster for “The Slav Epic Exhibition”. Methodical analysis allowed us to characterise this work as a statement of fulfilled expectations, prosperity and dawn at the same time. The terms “death, withering, fossil”, which are defined as temporary phenomena, act as a programmatic condition expressed through the artistic signs of the work. The results of the methodological analysis of the three works by A. Mucha significantly complement the existing data on the conceptual aspect of the artist’s work.