Zodiaque

Alphonse Maria Mucha

Colour lithograph

Community

Zodiaque is a colour lithograph created by the Czech Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha in 1896, originally designed as an in-house calendar for the Parisian printing firm Champenois. The composition centres on a majestic female figure shown in profile, set against a prominent halo-like disk in which the twelve signs of the zodiac are incorporated alongside decorative hexagrams — mystical symbols that recur throughout Mucha's oeuvre. The theme of the harmonious working of the universe is rendered in Mucha's signature style: sinuous organic lines, shimmering colour, and rich ornamental patterning that epitomise the Belle Époque Art Nouveau aesthetic. Mucha (1860–1939) rose to international fame in Paris, and Zodiaque became one of his most widely reproduced works, with at least nine known variants of the lithograph, including versions printed without text to serve as standalone decorative panels.