The Pantheon of the Duques Del Infantado: Space and Light

Abstract

The main branch of the Mendoza family had close ties with the Convent of San Francisco in Guadalajara and chose the convent church’s main chapel as their burial site. In the 17th century, Juan de Dios de Mendoza y Silva, 10th Duke of the Infantado, decided to build a pantheon for his family’s remains inside the church and commissioned Felipe Sánchez to design it. The outcome was a splendid Baroque structure inspired by the pantheon designed by Juan Bautista Crescenzi for the royal family in El Escorial. The Pantheon of the Dukes of the Infantado is neither as grandiose nor as richly decorated as the Pantheon of the Kings in El Escorial, but, from a compositional perspective, its spaces are far richer and its solutions more advanced. Above all, it stands out for the way in which light is used to surprise and move the beholder.