A day at the Getty Villa for our travelling Collections Manager, Sandra: The J Paul Getty Museum has two campuses - the Getty Center in the hills behind Los Angeles, and the Getty Villa, set on top of the cliffs of Malibu. Today I spent hours at the Villa (its impossible not to) exploring the 1200+ objects on display from the 44,000 strong collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. The setting, architecture, display and interpretation throughout the museum has to be seen to be believed. J Paul Getty modelled his villa on the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum; an ancient Roman site buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and rediscovered during the 18th century age of excavations and archaeology. I love the parallel: where the Roman emperor Hadrian (2nd century AD) commissioned copies of Classical Greek sculptures to celebrate and experience that civilisation, Getty had the architecture of Hadrians world recreated, as the ideal setting for his vast collection of antiquities. The Getty provides a remarkable environment in which to experience and learn about such an important aspect of our broad cultural heritage, so Ive attached just a few photos from my day - a couple of which do have links to our current wonderful British Museum exhibition - as a bit of a teaser. Images: 1. View back to the Villa from the end of the Outer Peristyle Garden 2. The centrepiece of the Villas Temple of Herakles - The Lansdowne Herakles, Roman, circa AD 125, marble 3. A display case featuring images of the adventures from Homers Odyssey (written circa 800 BC). The tiny scroll fragment in the lower left of the case is from Book 10 of the Odyssey, a Roman edition from Egypt, circa 1st century BC 4. Female figures from the Cyclades, circa 2700-2400 BC 5. The walled sanctuary of the East Garden, featuring an ornate mosaic fountain modelled on an example from Pompeii getty.edu/visit/villa/
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 00:30:01 +0000
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