The Pantheon of Czech Music

The painting is a paean to several famous Czech composers, celebrated and glorified by admiring angels. The bearded gentleman in the centre is Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) best known for the opera The Bartered Bride and the romantic symphonic poem Vltava. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), the composer of The New World Symphony, sits next to him with pencil and paper; on his other side, in a reverent attitude, is Pavel Křížkovský (1820-1885), composer of choral and church music and one of Mucha’s mentors. To the left of Dvořák is Gottfried Rieger (1764-1855), a prolific Moravian composer and conductor, and at far left is František Škroup (1801-1862), who composed the Czech national anthem. On the far right is Zdeněk Fibich, a composer who created a melodramatic musical form.