The Stained Glass Window of the Law
about 1930
In a tall arched window on the stair landing stands a blindfolded woman in a pale robe, a sword point down in one hand and a set of scales raised in the other. Two golden eagles crouch at her feet, a chain slung between them, and above her head a monogram spells out the word Lei, Law. Around her the glass is patterned with rosettes and a border of stylised leaves against a sky of pale blue. This is the allegory of Justice, and it was made for a building whose purpose was public security and the administration of the law.
Stained glass of this kind was fashionable in Brazilian official buildings of the nineteen twenties and thirties, and workshops in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro supplied it to the new capital. Look at the painting on the glass: the face, the folds of the robe and the feathers of the eagles are drawn in brown enamel and fired, while the colours of the background come from the glass itself. The blindfold and the scales are the familiar attributes of Justice, but the eagles and the chain are a more pointed message about the reach of the state. A bronze plaque below the window records the names of the officials who commissioned the building.
The window survived the decades of office use and was restored with the rest of the building. It is the single most photographed detail in the CCBB, and the changing light through the day turns it from cool blue in the morning to gold in the afternoon. Stand on the landing rather than at the foot of the stair to see the whole figure without the balustrade in the way.
Did You Know? The monogram at the top of the window spells Lei, the Portuguese word for law, above a Justice who is blindfolded and armed.
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