A day at the Getty

It is officially Spring, or so the calendar says. But I can hear the rain coming down with a vengeance as I sit here in my office. It is cold and windy and not very "Spring-like" for Southern California.

But last weekend Spring had already arrived in Malibu.

We went to visit the Getty Villa - our first time - to celebrate my daughter's birthday and it was spectacular! If you have not had a chance to visit - it is a "must see"! We have been to the Getty Center in Los Angeles many times but this was our first to the Villa. Admission is free (hard to believe) but you must have reservations and parking is $15. You can get reservation tickets online by clicking here.

The grounds are absolutely beautiful. The villa sits on a sixty-four-acre site that J. Paul Getty purchased in 1945 and where he built his home and adjacent gallery that served as the first J. Paul Getty museum. It sits on a hill overlooking the ocean which is just about 100 feet from the entrance. 

In 1968, needing more room to house his growing collection, J. Paul Getty decided to re-create a first-century Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri. It took seven years to finish and unfortunately Getty never saw it completed. The Villa dei Papiri was a Roman country house in Herculaneum that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.  Even the Villa's main driveway, paved with large, irregular stones, is patterned after the ancient streets of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

Spouted jar with Lion-Griffin handles, Achaemenid, from ancient Percia 350-325 B.C. 

The collection includes 44,000 Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities which date from 6,500 B.C. to 400 A.D. That is impressive. I get goosebumps when I see artifacts that ancient. But besides his extensive collection, the building itself is a work of art. Not a detail was left unattended from floor to ceiling; it is perfection.

My favorite exhibit was, Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. It features the Oppenlander collection which includes over 180 ancient glass objects made in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Greek world, and the Roman Empire from 2500 B.C. to eleventh century A.D.

Blue splashware cup, Roman, A.D. 1 - 100. 

Perfume flasks

If you live local, or if you are planning a visit, be sure to put this lovely museum on your list of "things to see and do"!