A trip to the Villa and the other Getty

On Friday of last week I was at the Getty Villa. It is a museum that was built by oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. I was there with David and his twin brother.

The museum houses a collection of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art. However, the museum is perhaps best known for its design. The building is a reproduction of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, a Roman house that was burred by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The floor plan, gardens, wall paintings, and marble work are all based upon what is know of the villa or other contemporaneous Roman buildings.

I really liked the Getty Villa because I have a degree in Classical Civilizations. Where else can I use what I leaned in classes such as Roman archaeology, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, Latin, the Hellenistic period, the Archaic Greek period, Greek religion, the Roman Republican period, and the archeology of Pompeii?

I only took a few pictures there last week because I took several on an earlier trip. All of these pictures are from my visit to the villa in the summer of 2007. This is the main entrance to the villa. They also built a small classical style theater where I took this picture from.



This is a picture of the outer peristyle and garden from the second floor. The ocean is in the background.



This is an example of the wall paintings in the villa. I would tell you what style of wall painting they are, but as one of my professors can attest I am terrible at wall painting identification. However, they are either third style or fourth style wall paintings, if not a mix of styles. Notice the use of perspective so it looks like the walls are actually windows that show adjacent buildings.



This shot of the impluvium is presented for James. Anyone who takes Latin in high school and has a favorite part of a Roman villa is awesome. The impluvium is a pool in the atrium of a Roman villa that collects rainwater that falls through a hole in the roof.



If you ever go to the Getty Villa, you should know admission requires an advance timed ticket. While the ticket is free, parking costs $15 per car. Consult the Getty website for more details.

The Getty Center
What I described above is the Getty Villa in Malibu. However, the Getty Museum has a second location, called the Getty Center. This second place is right next to the 405 and has a great overlook of the greater Los Angeles area. The Getty Center houses the rest of the Getty collections, which includes things from the Middle Ages to the present. I was there on Tuesday with my brother so I will share a few comments.

Aside from the paintings you would expect, there are a lot of European decorative arts on display. They have entire rooms dedicated to different French decorating styles. If I remember correctly there was one each for the court, Rococo, transitional, and Neoclassical styles. I have seen all the old French furniture I need to see for the rest of my life.

I went on the garden tour and the architecture tour. I would only recommend you go on those tours if you are really interested in learning about the museum's design. My time would have been better spent looking at the collections, which are extensive. However, if you ever go to the museum with me I will fill you in on all the semi-interesting parts of the tours.

Great Museum Idea
If you plan on going to any museum, I would suggest you pre-museum. Go online to learn everything you can about the museum, watch any videos they have posted, and get the complete story behind some of their major pieces. Look up any historical eras or important people the museum covers you are interested in. By learning the basic facts about the items and exhibits, you can spend more time looking at the objects. Things will be more meaningful if you know their context. In my experience a little knowledge ahead of time makes things much more interesting.