Touring the Museo Franz Mayer

 

Santiago Matamoros, horseback, in wood, inside the Museo Franz Mayer

After the Palacio de Belles Artes, it was time for the nearby Museo Franz Mayer. This is a quirky museum inside an old church, on the edge of the historic core of Mexico City.

Let's go inside.

There is a small courtyard to the left of the entrance.

Same courtyard, from the second floor balcony.

Google maps describes the museum as an "international collection of 16th and 19th Century decorative arts, including silverware and textiles." It is that. But there is more to it than silverware and textiles.

This is the library.

It's small and us visitors cannot access the books held within. I could find no explanation for the giant yellow "Q" hanging from the ceiling.

Onto the silverware and textiles and other decorative arts from the 16th and 19th centuries.

This is a depiction of two Roman soldiers fighting over Christ's vestments:

I'm not a "look at furniture in a museum" sort of person, but if you're going to have furniture in a museum, the furniture should look like this:

Or this:

I'd take either one.

Or this room divider screen:

I like room divider screens. I used to want one, but I couldn't find one that was I pictured in my head. Room dividers screens were sort of the cubical walls of their day, their day being a few hundred years ago. You can change room shapes easily, as needed, without worrying about knocking down load-bearing walls.

Moving from the decorative arts to just plain "art":

"La muerte de San Agustín." The death of St. Augustine, although, when you look close -- sacrilege alert -- it looks more "dinner on the corpse of St. Augustine."

I will put up the temporary divider screen before moving into drawings.

Separation made. This next one is "The Flagellation of Christ."

It's by German artist Albrecht Dürer. He lived from 1471 to 1528, so this puts the "16th Century" in the label for the collection at this museum.

That is from Pieter Brueghel. It dates from 1558, so, again, 16th Century. It's part of a series. This is from the same series:

This is a Rembrandt:

Even as a drawing you can see that strange effect that Rembrandt's works have, where the subject looks back-lit. Even the drawing has the foreground with that same back-lighting effect.

And we will end the drawings/prints with this one. The artist is Johannes Stradanus. Previously unfamiliar. The work is titled "America."

Because, in 1600, Europeans thought "America" was just a bunch of naked ladies lying around in hammocks, I guess.

Back to the decorative arts. Chairs. Here are five chairs representing five European powers at the time.

England. France. Portugal.

Portugal (redux). Italy. Austria-Hungary.

These chairs accurately depict their countries at that time. England; sturdy and solid, but not comfortable. France: ornate and showy. Austria: practical but attractive. But the best design, without a doubt:

Italy. Beautiful. But of course it's not practical. Italian design never is.

And here are some fancy-fancy clocks from England:

And here is Santiago Matamoros.

Translation: St. James the Moor-Slayer. Matamoros? Matar = to kill.  Moros = Moors. Put the two together and you get?

This is titled: "trinidad antropomórfica." Anthropomorphic trinity. The Holy Trinity depicted in human -- anthropomorphic -- form.

The son -- on the left which puts him at the right hand of the father -- with a lamb. The Holy Spirit with an angel. Father in the center.

Onto the silverware!

So much silver. So much of it made in the silversmith shops of Taxco.

This is a depiction of St. Michael the Archangel battling (and defeating) Satan:

And here is a silver fox (in the mirror) taking a picture of a silver dinner service:

Silver cat.

Kind of emaciated looking.

And here is a silver fish.

I thought silverfish were something else.

And here is the founder of the museum himself:

Franz Mayer-Traumman. Not in silver.

Exterior shot of the Franz Mayer museum:

And that was enough museum-ing for the day. Two museums in one day is sufficient museum-ing.

Here is a fountain in nearby Alameda Park filled with wet children:

Foreshadow.

I was walking around this area, soaking in the sights and the atmosphere, and the afternoon thunderstorms that had been in the forecast every day of this trip, finally came. The skies open up and it was a drenching downpour. Soon I was as soaked as the kids in the fountain.

Two-Stop Daytrip: Stop 2: Taxco

Not all the taxis in Taxco are VW Beetles from Ancient America.
Only most.

Heigh-ho, Silver. Away! Away to the silver city of Taxco, the second stop on the two-stop daytrip out of Mexico City.

Taxco is a town built on silver. Its wealth in Spanish Mexico was from its silver mines. Its economy today is built on tourism. And selling silver jewelry and home decor to the tourists. A silver miner even greets you at the entrance of the city.

Well, a statuary silver miner. Not made of silver.

Let's wander in and up:

The most famous sight in Taxco is the Santa Prisca church, built with silver wealth.

We'll go inside later, but first lunch.

Lunch was at the Del Angel Inn, adjacent to the church. The views of the city from the restaurant are amazing.

Taxco is dramatically situated on the steep sides of cliffs.

Technically, it's walkable.

If you have strong knees and strong lungs to walk straight up the cliffside on which the town was built.

There is a statue of Christ at the top of the hill overlooking the city.

(Close up zoom function in effect.)

What to eat? The local specialty is "mole rosa," pink mole. So I ordered that because where else can you get mole rosa except in Taxco?

They grow oodles and oodles of roses ("oodles" being a scientific term meaning "scads") in nearby Cuernavaca. The rose-colored mole of Taxco can get its color and flavor from rose petals. It happens. Beetroot is a more common source of the rose color and the sweet flavor. The mole rosa was quite good -- even if it were made with mere beets and not with roses -- although the chicken underneath was a bit dry. Just like chicken in the USA!

Back to Santa Prista. Fortified with a lunch of the local mole rosa, let's have a look inside:

 

The silver money from the mine owner was used to outfit the church interior.

Yes. In the 1700s, this was one of the richest cities anywhere. All from the local silver.

The money flowed so freely into this church that they were able to hire the preeminent New World artist of that era to paint the church interior: Miguel Cabrera.

Note the pregnant Virgin Mary above, on the right. Apparently depicting the Virgin as pregnant -- even though she was carrying the Christ child -- was scandalous in its day.

More works from Cabrera:

There also is a large depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- this is Mexico after all -- made entirely of pure silver.

This is a recent addition to the church decor.

Even the side chapels are ornate and feature the paintings of Miguel Cabrera.

Time to explore more of what Taxco has to offer the tourist.

Next we visited a silver shop. And not just any silver shop. This was the shop of silversmiths who designed and cast the silver depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Prista.

This is the mold:

It looks like any mold. It's the imprint. It's not the actual object. You pour in the molten silver and that's how you get three-dimensional rendering of the Virgin. That's how it's supposed to work. Or ...

If you look closely, when you take a photo, the face and hands of the Virgin look three-dimensional, like they are popping out from the mold and are not merely a debossed image. Look closer:

Even more amazing, if you move your camera downward, the face of the Virgin looks like she is looking downward. If you move the camera to the side, her face (and eyes) follow you. I should have shot video to make this clear but my brain cut out momentarily there. The effect was amazing. 

The silversmith shop had some other interesting pieces that were outside my budget range. Por ejemplo: the Last Supper. In silver.

This is the official Catholic Church approved depiction of the Last Supper, with Christ in the center, Peter to the left (Christ's right) and John to the right (Christ's left). Judas is at the far right end of the table. Again, Christ's left. The most sinister position in the depiction. This is not the da Vinci version. People treat the da Vinci depiction of the Last Supper as if it were a photograph of the actual even from 33 or so A.D. It's not. It's awesome. It's a masterpiece. But it's not the official record.

And note this cool silver chess set. Instead of black and white, the sides are the Spanish conquistadores and the Aztecs.

The pieces are different for the two sides. The Spanish wear armor. The Aztecs are less clothed. The Aztec "knight" -- they didn't have horses until the Spanish conquest -- was a jaguar. Rooks were castles on the Spanish side, temples on the Aztec side.

The price? One million pesos. A bargain when you consider that is merely $50,000 U.S. for all that intricate silver work.

And here are the Taxco letters.

Every city in Latin America has its letters. These are Taxco's.

The tour left a little time to explore Taxco on my own.

This required a steep uphill climb, since all roads in Taxco are either a steep uphill or a steep downhill.

I didn't make the Christ statue at the top of the hill. No one climbs the climb. At least no tourist does.

That's what the VW Beetle taxis are for.

The sun is starting to dip behind the mountain.

The daytrip day is over. Time to return to Mexico City.

And back in Mexico City, it was time to head to the hotel bar to redeem my coupon for my free "welcome" drink. It's Mexico so it was a margarita. And there was a "band" playing at the hotel bar. A violinist accompanied by a piano.

They played my absolute favorite Latin standard:  "Perfidia." Vacation luxury! Even better: affordable luxury. The best kind of luxury there is.