The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice

The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivančice (1914) was among the first completed canvases of the Slav Epic and depicts the clandestine production of the first complete Czech translation of the Bible, printed between 1579 and 1594 by Czech Brethren in Moravia. The Kralice Bible established the literary standard for the Czech language and became the foundational text of Czech Protestant culture, comparable in cultural significance to the King James Bible in English. Mucha chose to celebrate not a battle or a coronation but an act of intellectual labour — typographers, scholars, and printers working together by lamplight — signalling from the outset that the Slav Epic would honour cultural achievement alongside military and political history. The Ivančice connection was personally significant to Mucha, who was himself born in nearby Ivančice in 1860.

Mucha composed the scene around the concentrated activity of a printing workshop, with craftsmen at press, scholars correcting proofs, and the soft glow of workshop lamps creating warm illuminated zones against deep shadow. The handling of light sources is among the most technically refined passages of the early Epic canvases. Careful still-life treatment of type trays, manuscripts, and tools demonstrates Mucha's eye for the material culture of early printing.