2.2 Influence of mythology.

On the basis of previous statement, is easy to assume that the young man in the poster by Alphonse Mucha, can act as not quite human. Baroque, famous for his religious and mythological motifs, could also affect the interest in Mucha to Greek mythology. The image of the man in the poster resembles the image of the Faun, the guardian of forests and herds. In the Rubens painting “Peace and War” 1629 -1630 (Great artists. Peter Paul Rubens. 2009: 9) in the left piece of painting is easy to find the Faun, holding the cornucopia in his hands. The main distinguishing features of a faun are dark curly hair, horns, goat and rear legs, hairy thighs and a darker skin color (N.A. Kun Legends and myths of Ancient Greece 2005:108) All of this are in the "Imprimerie Cassan Fils" poster. The skin of a young man darker than usual, his curly dark hair resemble horns and fat, dark pants at the hips remind us of the dark fur goat legs of Faun. Faun is the god of fertility in Greek mythology; he was guarding the forest, the woman prayed to him about the children, and the shepherds on the replenishment of the herd. Not for nothing in the “Peace and War” in the hands of a Faun is cornucopia and in the poster for "Imprimerie Cassan Fils" in his hands is the lithographic press. Alphonse Mucha created a new god of their time?

“Peace and War” 1629 -1630 Fragment 2 "Imprimerie Cassan Fils",1896

by Peter Paul Rubens. by Alphonse Mucha.

2.3 Cofactors

The final touches to the style of Alphonse Mucha were the appearance in his life the Art Nouveau style, which appeared in late 19th and early 20th centuries (Mucha 2012: 20). Stylistic features of Art Nouveau were the refusal of sharp lines and angles in favor of more natural smooth motion. The stylistic orientation based on ornamental wavy lines and natural forms and animal origin perfectly merged with passion of Mucha for Baroque. The combination of color and genre features of Baroque melodic smoothness and abstract forms of Art Nouveau style became the basis of the posters by Alphonse Mucha. However, the final push toward appearing the unique poster style of Alphonse Mucha was the appearance in his life of lithography. Bavarian Alois Zenelferder invented this printing technique in 1798. It is this technique became the basic appearance of the poster as a method of advertising. Zenelferder made his discovery by accident, he usually left to his mother the laundry list, written by oily pencil on the small stone. Bavarian later noticed that even when the pencil is washed away from the stone the sticky residue is still were and it repels the moisture. Lithography allows you to copy the posters many times without loss of quality of the final image. This marked the beginning of the formation of the poster as a genre of visual advertising.

According to Jiri Mucha, the Alphonse's son: "His style was born suddenly, matured in one night, without the preceding basic research." (Mucha 2012: 25). Accidental or not, but the coincidence of all these factors led to a unique style of Alphonse Mucha in which he developed another his talent: talent of visual dialogue of advertising.