Seraina Renz: Medieval Pastiches in Central European Modernism. The Cases of Alfons Mucha and Ivan Meštrović

The lecture presents two main case studies that form the starting point of an investigation into the reception, appropriation, and exploitation of medieval art forms in early 20th-century modernism in Central Europe. Its focus lies on a comparison between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. These two states emerged after the breakdown of the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires in the First World War. The two new countries have a lot of features in common: they are home to a variety of peoples with different languages, dialects, religions. The majority population is Slavic but the minorities are numerous and manyfold. Nonetheless, the common cultural denominator was meant to be Slavic. This paper addresses how artists from both countries assisted in the invention of such a Slavic culture. Prominent figures in the endeavour were Alfons Mucha and Ivan Meštrović. Both were very well known and established. The engagement for the national cause only enhanced their prominence. Curiously, both Meštrović and Mucha referred in their artworks to the saints Cyrill and Method, two brothers and monks from Greece who had played an important role in Christianizing the Slavic world in the 9th century. As the presentation will show, reference to these two saints is popular in much of Eastern Europe until the present day.