Past is Present
October 2007
In 1968, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty set out to design and construct an opulent new setting for his vast collection of antiquities. He envisioned a perfect context for its display: A classical building similar to those in which the works of art and objects were originally seen—recreated on his 45-acre Malibu estate.Bubbling up from the hardened volcanic debris of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 A.D., which entombed the bustling city of Pompeii, along with the much-smaller town of Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples, came his model: the Villa dei Papiri. This splendid Roman country house just outside Herculaneum was considered one of the most luxurious private residences of the ancient world. It takes its unusual name from the carbonized papyrus rolls of philosophical texts that were discovered in the vestiges of the villa’s ancient library in the mid-18th century during excavations that tunneled throughout the villa in search of artifacts, and that also yielded a precise archeological ground plan drawing of the villa’s original footprint. Today, most of the Villa dei Papiri still remains buried, but having seen the ground plan drawing, Getty decided to use it as the basis for his villa-cum-museum. From his home in England, he watched its construction through films and photographs (the global businessman shunned airplanes), but died only two years after it opened in 1974, without even having visited his recreation.
Between 1974 and 1997, the Getty Villa served as the showplace for an ever-growing collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities, along with Old Master paintings and rare decorative French furniture. Concurrent with the opening of the Getty Center Museum (in Brentwood) in 1997, the Villa was closed to undergo a nine-year, $275-million "re-imagining" and reconstruction, which includes windows and skylights in the second-floor galleries, the addition of a Roman-style theater and a new entry pavilion fashioned from marble, travertine and translucent onyx.
Today, the Getty Villa houses the antiquities collection, which encompasses 44,000 Greek, Roman and Etruscan artifacts, of which more than 1,200 are on public view. The scope of the Getty’s ever-growing collection ranges from intimate objects of everyday life in the ancient world to spectacular art treasures rivaling those found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Even now, with controversy swirling around the issues of cultural patrimony and provenance, the Getty’s new antiquities curator, Karol Wight, vows to continue to enhance the Villa’s collection under stricter standards adopted by the museum last year: The Getty will not consider any object whose provenance does not date back to at least 1970, the date of a landmark UNESCO Convention prohibiting traffic in illicit antiquities. However, claims on precious artifacts by foreign governments linked to the methods of their acquisition continue to plague major museums, including the Getty, as well as certain collectors, dealers and the Getty’s former antiquities curator, Marion True (presently on trial in Italy on charges of conspiring to acquire looted objects for the museum).
Recently, the Getty Museum returned an ancient gold funerary wreath and marble statue to Greece after questions arose about their provenance. And, for the time being (until 2010), a fifth-century B.C. carved-limestone cult goddess statue (possibly Aphrodite) will remain on view, though it is among 40 objects in the Getty Villa’s collection to be transferred back to Italian soil according to an agreement of August 1, 2007, reached between the Getty and the Italian government. The goddess statue has been described by the Getty as "arguably the most art historically important of the antiquities in the museum’s collection." True bought the piece for the Getty in 1988 for $18 million, a record for an ancient artifact at the time.
For first-time visitors, the main focus is undoubtedly the Villa itself. Docent-led tours of the architecture, landscape and gardens help to evoke the classical period through the Villa’s abundance of extant replicas of statues and decorative detailings from the Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum and other ancient sites also covered by the volcanic eruption of 79 A.D. Precisely planted gardens filled with species known to have flourished around the ancient Mediterranean offer up the scent of herbs and flowers commonly used in Roman daily life. The inner peristyle’s central focus includes a grouping of life-like bronze statuary, while the outer peristyle has the 220-foot long reflecting pool, adorned with statuary replicas placed in positions corresponding to where they were found in the original villa. Walkways under covered colonnades demonstrate the artistry and craftsmanship of the period with true-to-color wall paintings and intricately patterned polished stone and marble floors. Another highlight of the Villa is the "Triclinium" (a dining room area), which features a lavish display of multi-colored floor and wall marble artistry, copying the patterns of those found at Herculaneum, as well as replicating designs and details from various other ancient buildings, using marble fragments collected from Egypt, Sparta, Turkey, Tunisia and Italy.The 29 indoor galleries present only original works of art, produced by ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan craftsmen. Unlike most museums, which arrange their displays of ancient art chronologically or by medium, the Getty Villa galleries are organized thematically. They represent a journey through the original context and meaning of the objects, and highlight the diverse roles they played in the societies that produced them. The ground-floor themed galleries include: Theater and Spectacle, Gods and Goddesses and Mythological Heroes, among others. The second-floor galleries offer a glimpse into the worlds of women and children, athletes and competition and ancient religious offerings, as well as a treasury containing a wealth of ancient coins, cut gemstones and jewelry. More intimate galleries throughout the museum display tantalizing selections of luxury artifacts such as jewelry, silver, fresco paintings and statuary, and artifacts made of specific materials (including terra cotta, glass, marble and bronze).
The best place to begin this journey is in the TimeScape Room, which neatly lays out historical developments of the ancient world, starting with the oldest artifacts in the galleries dating back as early as 6500 B.C., up to 500 A.D. However, most of the works in the Getty Villa collection were created between 700 B.C. and 300 A.D.
Displayed in a special "temple" gallery is the more than life-sized statue of Hercules, titled the Lansdowne Herakles, a Roman copy of a 300 B.C. Greek original, found in 1790 near the ruins of emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli above Rome, and sold to the English aristocrat Lord Lansdowne in 1792. Getty acquired the prized piece in 1951 for $18,000. Surrounded by a circular geometric-patterned marble floor, an exact replica of a floor discovered at the Villa dei Papiri, this particular statue is credited with inspiring Getty to build his museum in the style of an ancient Roman villa. Other major highlights include a questionable kouros (at present, neither scientists nor art historians have been able to authenticate it as a 530 B.C. sculpture) and the statue of a Victorious Youth, displayed in a temperature-controlled room due to its fragile condition. This rare bronze was found encrusted with shells, coral and mud in an ancient shipwreck, and is one of the few surviving life-sized bronze statues of the Hellenistic period, (323–30 B.C.).
Several other second-floor galleries provide space for changing exhibitions from institutions including the British Museum, the Musée du Louvre and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Co-curated by Getty scholars and curators, and enhanced by pieces from the Getty antiquities collection and Getty Research Institute collections, these special exhibitions are more specifically focused. Since the Villa’s reopening in 2006, special exhibitions have included a pre-eminent collection of mosaics of Roman Africa (which today is Tunisia); great masterpieces of Athenian pottery produced from 550 to 340 B.C.; and artifacts from the first Greek colonies established in the late seventh century B.C. on the Black Sea, which displayed pieces of jewelry that have been called the most majestic of Greek gold and precious gem workmanship ever found.
Presently on display in a small sunlit second-floor gallery is a special exhibition entitled "The Herculaneum Women and the Origins of Archaeology," featuring two elegantly draped and exceedingly lifelike female statues (first-century A.D. Roman copies of fourth-century B.C. Greek statues) which have been at the center of the Dresden State Art Collection’s antiquities collection since 1736. These statues have a particular significance to the Getty Villa, as they were the first finds to be unearthed at Herculaneum in 1711. They were discovered at the end of a deep shaft by workers digging a well into dense layered volcanic deposits while constructing a country estate for the royal Austrian general, Prince d’Elboeuf, on the Bay of Naples. Not only did the near-perfect female statues reveal the first traces of subterranean treasures buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but the figures are linked to the birth of archaeology as a scientific discipline.
Of the Herculaneum women Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, says, "The history of these statues closely links them to the Getty Villa, which is modeled after the ancient Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, and thus ultimately owes its existence to the discovery of these two statues." On loan from Dresden, the two ideal visitors will be exhibited at the Villa over the next year.
As with any archaeological site, the significance of the finds depends on what you’re seeking. Thus, the Getty Villa can be discovered as an individual experience through its antiquities collection, architecture, special exhibitions and theater, or as an imaginary journey back in time. The choice is yours.
GETTY VILLAGE EXPERIENCES
"Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome" (now through Jan. 14) and "The Magnificent Piranesi" (Dec. 6–March 10). Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades. 310.440.7300. getty.edu/visit
Related reading: The Getty Villa (Getty Trust Publications, 2005) Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum (Getty Trust Publications, 2007). Ashen Sky: The Letters of Pliny the Younger on the Eruption of Vesuvius (Getty Trust Publications, 2007).
Los Angeles correspondent Diane Rozas is co-author of American Venus: The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson, Model and Muse.