The J. Paul Getty Museum is a museum and educational center with two locations dedicated to ancient Roman, Greek, and Etruscan arts and culture. I went to one of the locations known as Getty Villa, which is an interesting little place hidden in Malibu, California, right off of Pacific Coast Highway, next to the beach. If you are not looking for it, you could miss it. I almost did.
I went with some family and friends, not knowing what to expect and I was not disappointed. It is a nice little place hidden in the hills, with architecture based off of ancient Rome, where people can shop, eat, and go to events. The main attraction, however, is the museum. There are official tours and self-guided audio tours, but I was okay without them, because it let me interact with my friends and family, and talk about the art.
The museum is a two-story building with various rooms where art such as statues, mosaics, jewelry, and vases are on display. If you follow the route that the founder wanted you to take (because J. Paul Getty strategically placed everything according to his artistic vision), you start out with the vases painted with animals and heroic scenes, and the miniature precious metal sculptures. After going through a few small rooms, you encounter full sized statues.
In keeping with the theme, Roman and some Greek statues—many of which have had to be reconstructed over time, since there seems to be a theme of missing arms—can be found on both floors of the museum. There are a few statues of sirens, poets, athletes, animals, and various unnamed warriors (many of which are not wearing clothes), but there are also better-known figures such as Hercules and Athena. I also came across statues that depict specific from myth. One of the statues was 'Leda and the Swan,' or as I like to call it—Zeus as a goose, being triflin'—because the swan is Jupiter (Greek: Zeus) pretending to be something else, so that he can go get people pregnant behind his wife's (Juno/Hera) back. He does that a lot, by the way.
I did like that Getty Villa's exhibits demonstrated that Greeks and Romans had had interactions with the African continent. The lions they feature in so much of their art had to come from somewhere. Italy doesn’t naturally have lions, but they had them in coliseums and they appear in their myths as trials (Hercules is a major one). The art shows you how Rome was influenced by the culture in Africa and absorbed many aspects into their own. The Romans at one time occupied Egypt, so there are Romanized depictions of the Egyptian god Serapis and the goddess Isis. It would have never occurred to me that the two figures were supposed to be Egyptian, but the Romans had taken over and their paintings were going to look like them.
The museum even featured mummies, along with their portraits, and a short clip on the many step, months long process of mummifying a body. It requires a whole lot of salt.
One thing I like about the museum is that it's just big enough to spend a couple hours in, and see everything without getting tired, but if someone needs a break there are benches to sit on. What I like better, is that if fresh air and beautiful scenery are needed, there are four different gardens to go to.
The gardens are just as important a feature as any other area of the museum and take up almost as much space as the art exhibits do. They are complete with fountains and edible herbs, though you probably should not try to eat them. My favorite garden was the outer peristyle, which is notably the grandest of the four gardens. It contains the largest fountain, which would be big enough to swim in, if it was actually more than three feet deep. The garden is beautiful and has multiple areas to sit, including the edge of the fountain underneath a huge shady vine of real grapes (once again, you probably should not try to eat them). The outer peristyle is a great place for taking pictures.
Getty Villa is a beautiful place to visit, and I and hoping to visit the second location at some point in the future. Since you can go to both locations on one parking ticket, I would love to visit the museum at Getty Villa again, along with the Getty center in Los Angeles.
*The Getty Villa requires that you register on line for a timeslot to get your free tickets, but the Getty Center can be attended without making reservations.
