Siyaya: The Getty Villa

An antiquities museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum is to be found in two locations in Los Angeles. The Getty Villa, which houses the antiquities museum, is situated in the community of Pacific Pallisades. J. Paul Getty was an oil tycoon who built this museum in honour of the arts and cultures of Ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria. Completed in 1974, Getty, who passed away in 1976, never saw the Villa in its entirety.

The museum combines architectural beauty - it is inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneam - with an amazing wealth of artefacts. The Getty Guide, on an iPod, is available to every visitor. It shows a picture of what it is you are looking for and gives relevant information.

One is surrounded by so much grandeur that the word "museum" seems a misnomer. At first one thinks that it is merely another theme park, but the Villa is so much more. It is indeed a replica of a Roman villa such as ideally it might have looked. The greatest attention has been given to almost every little detail - the floors, the ceilings, the candelabra, the columns and the gardens, inspired by examples from actual villas in Pompeii (covered by 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD) and Herculaneam (covered in lava during the same event).

As one enters one encounters an open-air theatre.

A foyer with a dry water pan (drought in California)

Marble, imported from all over, was a sign of wealth.

The capitals of the columns are from different marbles. Notice the intricate stuccowork patterns on the ceiling.

The inner garden (also without water)

The candelabra looks antique. Here too the ceiling is intricately decorated.

On visiting Pompeii on a previous occasion we were struck by how advanced the Romans as a society were. I was especially impressed by the paved roads, the frescoes and mosaics. There is such a sense of people having lived there and of a town just waiting for its people to return that it leaves one heavyhearted.

Relief of an African Elephant used in battle, Roman A.D. 79-96

Remnants of a mosaic from a Roman villa.

Religion was important in Roman society and there are many artefacts originating from household shrines in the museum. I particularly like this statuette of a bull (below) meant as an offering, probably to Jupiter, who often took this form in mythology. Offerings were made daily to secure protection for the family.

Roman, from Pompeii, 100 B.C. - A.D. 79

Incense burner. Greek, from South Italy or Sicily, 400-300 B.C. Traces of charring indicate this vessel was actually used in antiquity.

Asclepius and Hygieia, Roman, A.D. 100 -150. These miniatures were votive offerings or objects of devotion.

There are of course really big statues of some of the gods, who look like oversized persons of which some have very impressive physiques.

Roman, A.D. 100-200

Venus is Pieter's favourite, while Hercules (below) is mine.

Roman, A.D. 100-200

There are also items of jewellery and vessels of scented oil (something that used to be most precious)

The vessels in the middle are of Gallo-Roman origin, A.D. 70-100

This ensemble of jewellery probably belonged to a noblewoman of the Ptolemaic dynasty, rulers of Egypt from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. The pieces are beautifully worked showing superior craftmanship.

This gravestone shows a woman with her attendant, with the cropped hair of a slave, holding a hinged object looking like a wax writing tablet (no it cannot be a modern tablet!) or a jewelry box. The woman must have been wealthy. She is wearing bracelets like those in the box above.

Seeing a replica such as the Getty Villa makes Roman society seem even more impressive, but thankfully one no longer feels as if slaves and masters would somehow appear.

Having walked through the main building we sat down in the East Garden, a quiet place to escape from the heat, now like then.

The theatrical masks on the wall fountain are like those often used for decoration in Roman art in the first century A.D.

From here we went to the largest garden, once again really impressive.