Sunday, March 12, 2006
Getty Villa Report
On February 20th, I visited the new, improved Getty Villa. It is a re-creation of a Roman villa that is now home solely to the Getty Trust's antiquities collection - Roman, Etruscan, Greek, etc. The setting is spectacular - in Pacific Palisades between Santa Monica and Malibu, wedged into a canyon overlooking the Pacific. Surrounded by native foliage, you feel as though you really are on the Mediterranean. The villa used to be one of my favorite places to visit and take out of town guests. I have really missed it over the last eight years since it closed for renovation shortly before the Getty Center in Brentwood opened. When the Getty Trust announced that the Villa would be re-opening on January 28th, I quickly made a reservation for the first date that fit my work schedule - President's Day, February 20th.
I could not have chosen a more beautiful day to visit. The winter rains from this weekend cleaned out the air. The weather was cloudless and vivid blue - I whispered a small "wow" to myself when I passed through the McClure Tunnel and began the drive up PCH from Santa Monica. That is always a wow moment, one of those vistas that makes LA special. But today was even more so as the azure sky, the deep blue ocean, the tan-white sand and the green of the palisades and the coastal hills beyond mixed perfectly. Looking over my shoulder, I could see the PV Peninsula and even Catalina clearly.
I am not going to write a tour guide travelogue of the Getty Villa. Many others have already done so. The LA Times write up was my guide (http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-cover26jan26,0,6102019.story). So I am just going to document a few impressions.
As usual, the Getty has done a fabulous job. Yes, it is true that the Getty Trust has billions to spend, but when it comes to facilities, they spend it on quality. (Side note: May family lore tells us that J Paul Getty and his dad rented a room from my family in Bartlesville when Getty was a young boy. His father had invested $500 in Bartlesville for a 1,100-acre lease. He drilled 43 wells and all but one were producers. Young Getty made money around town selling the Saturday Evening Post before he became an oil man too. You can see that history in person today because the building and the May Brothers store are still there in Bartlesville at the corner of Frank Phillips Blvd and Johnstone. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.)
Anyway, it is not quite accurate to call the eight years of work a restoration. The villa was re-imagined to be a more complete and accurate representation of the ancient villa at Herculaneum on which it was based. Because of the narrow canyon, the villa is aligned perpendicular to the coastline. But this was not true of villas in ancient Rome - they were parallel to the coast. So before the renovation when visitors entered along the reflecting pool, they were really coming in the side of the house. The renovation has corrected this by bringing visitors from the new parking area to the proper front of the villa which is how guests at the real villa in Herculaneum would have experienced it. Why is this important? It demonstrates the renovators' scrupulous attention to detail. They don't want you to have a replica experience. They want it to feel like the real thing.
That was the key impression from my visit - the architecture and grounds are more interesting than the collection itself. It was a pleasure to marvel at the exquisite marble in one room, the intricate mosaic in the floor of another. See the lizard on the tromp l 'oleil fresco? Looks real doesn't it? See the perpindicular tiles along the edge of the roof? They were there in ancient times to keep birds from nesting under the tiles. Reportedly, all the main building materials used in the structure are those that would have been available in the first century AD. When Getty first built the villa, he paid to open up long-closed marble quarries to ensure that he was using authentic materials. As I said, the Getty Trust spent its money on quality.
Because I was looking at the detail of the building, I tended to especially notice the fine work on the art pieces. The gold jewelry for example was incredible. How did the artisans create such small ornamentations and tiny, intricate gold chains? Very clever, imaginative and impressive. On the other hand, you really can only see so many water jugs and drinking cups before they become boring.
Three final notes. The open air theater was supposed to be located on the hillside so that the attendees could look down the canyon to the sea behind the performance area. This plan was nixed by the local residents. Too bad. Second, why were there so many employees walking around? It seemed at times like they outnumbered the vistors. Finally, the only negative. The limited space in the canyon means that the new parking structure is located below the villa and mars the view of the sea from the patio at the end of the reflecting pool. It is one of the few reminders that you are in the land of the car culture and not somewhere on the Mediterranean.
I could not have chosen a more beautiful day to visit. The winter rains from this weekend cleaned out the air. The weather was cloudless and vivid blue - I whispered a small "wow" to myself when I passed through the McClure Tunnel and began the drive up PCH from Santa Monica. That is always a wow moment, one of those vistas that makes LA special. But today was even more so as the azure sky, the deep blue ocean, the tan-white sand and the green of the palisades and the coastal hills beyond mixed perfectly. Looking over my shoulder, I could see the PV Peninsula and even Catalina clearly.
I am not going to write a tour guide travelogue of the Getty Villa. Many others have already done so. The LA Times write up was my guide (http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-cover26jan26,0,6102019.story). So I am just going to document a few impressions.
As usual, the Getty has done a fabulous job. Yes, it is true that the Getty Trust has billions to spend, but when it comes to facilities, they spend it on quality. (Side note: May family lore tells us that J Paul Getty and his dad rented a room from my family in Bartlesville when Getty was a young boy. His father had invested $500 in Bartlesville for a 1,100-acre lease. He drilled 43 wells and all but one were producers. Young Getty made money around town selling the Saturday Evening Post before he became an oil man too. You can see that history in person today because the building and the May Brothers store are still there in Bartlesville at the corner of Frank Phillips Blvd and Johnstone. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.)
Anyway, it is not quite accurate to call the eight years of work a restoration. The villa was re-imagined to be a more complete and accurate representation of the ancient villa at Herculaneum on which it was based. Because of the narrow canyon, the villa is aligned perpendicular to the coastline. But this was not true of villas in ancient Rome - they were parallel to the coast. So before the renovation when visitors entered along the reflecting pool, they were really coming in the side of the house. The renovation has corrected this by bringing visitors from the new parking area to the proper front of the villa which is how guests at the real villa in Herculaneum would have experienced it. Why is this important? It demonstrates the renovators' scrupulous attention to detail. They don't want you to have a replica experience. They want it to feel like the real thing.
That was the key impression from my visit - the architecture and grounds are more interesting than the collection itself. It was a pleasure to marvel at the exquisite marble in one room, the intricate mosaic in the floor of another. See the lizard on the tromp l 'oleil fresco? Looks real doesn't it? See the perpindicular tiles along the edge of the roof? They were there in ancient times to keep birds from nesting under the tiles. Reportedly, all the main building materials used in the structure are those that would have been available in the first century AD. When Getty first built the villa, he paid to open up long-closed marble quarries to ensure that he was using authentic materials. As I said, the Getty Trust spent its money on quality.
Because I was looking at the detail of the building, I tended to especially notice the fine work on the art pieces. The gold jewelry for example was incredible. How did the artisans create such small ornamentations and tiny, intricate gold chains? Very clever, imaginative and impressive. On the other hand, you really can only see so many water jugs and drinking cups before they become boring.
Three final notes. The open air theater was supposed to be located on the hillside so that the attendees could look down the canyon to the sea behind the performance area. This plan was nixed by the local residents. Too bad. Second, why were there so many employees walking around? It seemed at times like they outnumbered the vistors. Finally, the only negative. The limited space in the canyon means that the new parking structure is located below the villa and mars the view of the sea from the patio at the end of the reflecting pool. It is one of the few reminders that you are in the land of the car culture and not somewhere on the Mediterranean.
