Gallery of the Stained Glass Goddesses
French workshops · About 1900
One of the loveliest walks in the castle is this glazed corridor on the upper floor of the Alcázar, where five tall windows of coloured glass cast pools of light across the tiled floor. Each window shows a classical goddess in flowing robes: Flora with her flowers, Pomona with fruit, Diana the huntress, Hebe the cupbearer and Ceres with sheaves of wheat. Between the figures, floral borders and Art Nouveau scrollwork frame the view out to the garden. On a bright afternoon the effect is that of walking through a jewel box.
The windows were made in France, probably in Paris, and installed around 1900 during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz, who used the castle as his summer residence and spent lavishly on making it fashionable. Notice the technique: the figures are painted in enamel on individual pieces of glass, then fired, and the pieces are held in lead lines and larger iron frames. Look at the way the artists layered several tones of glass in the drapery and the way they set the goddesses against skies that shift from pale yellow to deep blue.
The gallery reflects the taste of the Porfiriato, the three decades before the Revolution when Mexico's elite looked to Paris for everything from architecture to dresses. The same French orientation produced the Palace of Fine Arts and the mansions of the Paseo de la Reforma. Because the corridor was part of the presidential family's private quarters, it was seen by few people until the museum opened in 1944. Today it is one of the most photographed spaces in the castle; come early if you want it to yourself.
Did You Know? The five goddesses are matched by the roof garden outside, so that the windows framed real flowers and the painted ones together.
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