The Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice 1914

Alphonse Mucha painted this scene of the Printing of the Bible of Kralice in Ivancice, but when I look at it, I think about painting as a kind of printing. I mean, look at how the subtle colours and blurred outlines create a dreamlike atmosphere. It’s like he’s building up layers of meaning, just like they are building up pages of the Bible. You can almost see the process, Mucha figuring out the composition, adding figures and details bit by bit. I can imagine him thinking about each brushstroke, each color choice, wondering how it all comes together. There is a way in which the story almost vanishes into the process of its making. It is there, but you also have to squint. And this tension is where the life of the painting lives. Mucha, like all artists, stands on the shoulders of those who came before, printing or painting—it’s all a kind of conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. It's about embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings.