Franz Mayer Museum

The Franz Mayer Museum (Spanish: Museo Franz Mayer), in Mexico City, is one of Latin America's best known museums. Opened on 17 June 1986 to accommodate and display the collections of Franz Mayer, it holds Mexico's largest decorative art collection and also hosts temporary exhibits in the fields of design and photography.

The collection shows items from different regions, materials and styles ranging from the 16th century to the present day, primarily from Mexico, Europe and the Far East. The most important genres in it are: silverware, ceramics, furniture, textiles, sculpture and painting.

The historic building currently occupied by the museum, dating from the 16th century, was the first hospital built in the Americas by the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God.

The cloister, owing to its beauty, is one of the highlights of the museum. It hosts temporary exhibits and through it one can access three rooms decorated to resemble a dining room, a cabinet and a chapel from the times of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The upper cloister features the public library, where several items are on display. It holds over 14,000 books, many of them rare and antique, as well as historical documents and over 800 editions of the book "Don Quixote" (Don Quijote de la Mancha).

The museum offers guided tours, courses, lectures, concerts, shows, children workshops and special activities for the affiliate members.

The building
The building now occupied by the Franz Mayer Museum has a long history. After operating as a hospital for four centuries, it has undergone modifications during the last forty years that have altered its architectural style, in order to make new functions possible. In the 1980s, interest grew in renovating the building and converting it into a museum.

In 1582, Doctor Pedro Lopez, the first doctor to graduate from the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, founded a hospital in this building that had until then been used to weigh flour. The hospital attended to blacks, mulattos, impoverished Spaniards and the poor, including orphans. It was called the Hospital for the Helpless, which included a church dedicated to the Three Kings.

At the founder's death in 1597, the hospital passed to his son, José Lopez, who fought to keep it open with the aid of the Dominicans.

In 1598, the Dominican Friar Fernando Alonso travelled to Spain to seek support for the hospital, and thanks to his efforts, in 1599 King Philip III began to sponsor it.

In 1604, the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God installed themselves in the building, which became the Order's first hospital in the Americas, and grew rapidly in fame. In 1620 a new era began for the hospital, with the construction of a church, hospital and a convent. The church's main altarpiece was inaugurated in 1650 and the infirmaries were completed in 1673.

The seat of the novitiate was inaugurated next to the hospital, where the brothers were trained for the treatment of the sick and the foundation of other hospitals. In the more than 200 years during which the brotherhood occupied the convent and hospital here, land concessions were given, constant extensions were constructed and diverse architectural modifications were made.

On March 10, 1766, a terrible fire damaged the hospital complex (the tragedy was recorded by the publication of a pamphlet).

On March 8, 1800, an earthquake destroyed part of the complex, but thirteen years later it had been completely reconstructed.

The Spanish Cortes, gathered in Cadiz, promulgated the decree to suppress the hospital orders and in 1821 the brotherhood abandoned the building.

By 1826, the few sick people who remained in the hospital were transferred to the San Andres Hospital.

In 1830, the nuns of the Teaching of the Indies used the building to found their school, and occupied it until 1834, after which the Sisters of Charity occupied the building in March 1845 and managed it until 1873.

In 1865, during the empire of Maximilian of Habsburg, the establishment was used to care for sick prostitutes. By 1875 the Public Benefits Office had taken charge of the building, under the name of the Morelos Hospital.

In 1914, the hospital's management transferred to the Junta of Catholic Ladies and a children's hospital was established, a dormitory for paper workers, an asylum for beggars and a “blood hospital.” In 1937, the building, then known as the “Women's Hospital,” was declared a National Heritage site.

In 1968, it was used as an exhibition centre for handicrafts, during the Olympic Games. It sustained its role as a handicrafts centre in a state of dereliction and illegal occupation.

In 1981, the Human Settlements and Public Works Ministry (SAHOP) granted the occupation of the building to the Franz Mayer Cultural Trusteeship, managed by the Bank of Mexico, for the installation of a museum to house the collection of Franz Mayer. That same year the restoration and adaptation of the building began. On 17 June 1986, the Franz Mayer Museum was opened to the public.

The collection


The Franz Mayer Museum collection consists of works of decorative art as well as sculpture and painting from Mexico, Europe and Asia dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Other artistic materials used in artworks within the collection include ironwork, feather work, lacquer work, tortoiseshell, ivory, print, glasswork and enamels.

Decorative art is an expression of the culture that produced it and provides information about a period's styles, fashions, changes in ornamentation, manufacturing processes and the artisans that took part in its creation.

Ceramics
The ceramics collection, consisting of 1,628 pieces and about 10,000 tiles, is the most extensive and diverse of the different genres that make up the whole Franz Mayer collection.

The most important set in terms of number of pieces is the Mexican maiolica, in particular that known as talavera from Puebla. It consists of all kinds of utilitarian objects, such as items for personal hygiene, tableware — plates, bowls, and soup tureens — and religious celebrations, in addition to purely ornamental objects such as sculptures and tiles. Most of these pieces are decorated in blue on a white background with ornamental motifs, which show the influence of the pieces of chinaware brought to Mexico by the Manila galleons from the last quarter of the 16th century onwards.

The ceramics collection also includes some examples of Spanish crockery with metallic glazes from Manises, Catalonia and Aragón and tin-glazed pottery from Talavera de la Reina, L'Alcora and Seville. It also contains a vast range of objects of exported chinaware, as well as Dutch ceramics in blue and white from Delft. Pieces made using the printing technique or transfer printing such as some English, Dutch, and Mexican creations, are an example of the crockery from the 19th century.

Silverware
Formed by slightly more than 1,290 pieces from the 15th to the 19th centuries, the silverware collection of the Franz Mayer Museum has been recognized as one of the most important collections in Mexico.

Every piece shows skilled craftsmanship in forging, casting and the different ways of using repoussé work, chiselling, graffito and filigree, as well as silver work encrusted with precious and semi precious stones, in addition to enamels and other metals, such as gold.

Most objects from the collection were used in Catholic liturgies and much of their survival is due to the care given to them, as they are considered sacred. Such items include censers, chalices, lamps, candlesticks, ciboria, processional crosses, tabernacles, and other objects related to religious celebrations.

Another part of the collection includes non-religious silver. Among some examples are small golden cigarette cases with precious stones, cutlery, plates and trays.

Furniture
The furniture collection in the Franz Mayer Museum is one of the richest in Mexico. Most of the items date from the Viceroyalty of New Spain but there are pieces from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, China and the Philippines, as well as pieces of Indo-Portuguese origin. This range helps to show the vast complexity of the commerce and trade that took place in New Spain between the 15th and the 19th centuries. It also displays the evolution of fashion and taste in furnishing.

Sculpture
The collection holds a wide variety of devotional sculpture, mainly from New Spain. Likewise, it features items made of ivory, alabaster, stone and wood, particularly in the technique known as "estofado".

European painting
The Museo Franz Mayer is one of the few places in Mexico where European painting (including works dating back to the 14th century) and Mexican painting can be seen together. The evolution of techniques can be seen, as can the conformation and representation of the individual in his geographical and social surroundings.

The Spanish collection features works from the 14th to 20th centuries, including important paintings by José de Ribera (“El Españoleto”), Francisco de Zurbarán, and Ignacio Zuloaga among others, while Italians such as Lorenzo Lotto and Alessandro Allori (“Il Bronzino”) also stand out. Artists such as Jacob Grimmer and Bartholomeus Bruyn represent work from northern Europe.

Flemish and Dutch works cap the European collection with handsome and valuable examples of hunting scenes, banquets, and scenes depicting daily life. They include portraits as well as religious scenes with an evident delight in the representation of nature. A canvas displaying a remarkable delicacy is attributed to the late 17th century Dutch painter Frans van Mieris.

Mexican painting
Mexican painting is represented by several colonial pieces, including several brilliantly executed religious painting by such prominent artists as Juan Correa, Miguel Cabrera, Juan and Nicolas Rodriguez Juarez and others. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Mexican painting was almost entirely religious and played an important didactic role. The immense artistic production of the colonial period was due to the dominant role that religion played in the daily life of our ancestors.

The collection also includes extraordinary examples of secular art such as portraits of well-known figures from 18th century, elegantly dressed in the fashion of the time. Important paintings by artists who travelled to Mexico in the 19th century and who wished to express the fascination they felt on discovering Mexican landscapes are also included. The late 19th and 20th centuries are represented by a landscape by José Maria Velasco, and an early painting by Diego Rivera entitled El Paseo de los Melancólicos.

Textiles
Of particular beauty is the collection of shawls and serapes. Tapestries, rugs and liturgical textiles, as well as textiles for everyday use, are also on display.