It was wonderfully fitting that just a few days after absorbing the Palladio exhibition at the Royal Academy, I was soaking up the sun in the gardens of the Getty Villa. Where the Italian architect reinterpreted classical models to form a new style, the wealthy American John Paul Getty took a step further backwards. He decided to create and exact copy of antiquity, nestled in the hills above Malibu with views over the Pacific.It's good to be rich.
The Getty Villa is one of my favourite museums in the world and is equaled only by Disneyland (blog entry to come) amongst my Southern California top picks. Let others do movie backlots, Rodeo Drive salons or dinosaurs in tar pits. I'll go for classical art and architecture in an excellent garden every time.
The building and its gardens are an almost exact reproduction, based on architectural best guesses, of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, one of scores of magnificent mansions of the wealthy that were obliterated when Vesuvius blew. I've visited the ruins of Pompeii, and seen the treasures dug out of the Papyri site in the museum in Naples. These both give you a wonder and appreciation of the past. But the Getty transports you directly to 70ad. If it weren't for people in modern clothes and the odd power outlet, you'd swear you had stepped through a rift in time.
Th
e main building, in classic Roman style, is built around an open courtyard. Smaller roofed courtyards lead off of this, all decorated with the marbles, statues, frescoes and fountains that would have been appropriate at the time. Behind these rooms, galleries circle the courtyard on two stories, filled with the kind of choice art collection from the Greco-Roman world you can assemble when you're one of the richest men in the world. This includes probably the finest life-sized Greek bronze nude I've ever seen outside of the museum in Athens. These are very rare; most Roman statues were copies of the Greek bronze originals and most of those originals have been lost. As a group, they get my vote for the most beautiful depiction of the male body ever achieved in art, and the youth standing proudly at the Getty is suitably god-like.Stretching forward from the villa to the sea is a classical garden more than 100 yards long, enclosed by covered colonnades. Each of these is vividly frescoed and ornately paved with coloured marbles. A magnificent pool with laughing fountains and reclining statues stretches down the centre of the garden, flanked by paths, plinths with portrait busts, marble benches and a colourful mix of plants all chosen for their authenticity. Outside the formal garden there's a working agricultural area that shows you how vines, olives and vegetables would have been grown, and another side garden with parterres of boxwood and one of the most beautiful mosaic fountains I've ever seen.
When I was a little girl I used to come here and wander by myself for hours while my family looked at the art. I would pretend that I was the daughter of a Roman senator, chatting with my imaginary Greek slaves and waiting to see whether I would be claimed by a victorious general or the vestal virgins. (I never claimed to be a normal kid.) Point being, there are few places on the planet where history is brought more thoroughly to life.
One of the great joys of returning to a place that you've visited many times, of course, is that you're not compelled to walk the tourist route. Aside from a quick stroll through the galleries (and a visit to my beautiful Greek man), I spent my day sitting in the sunshine on a curving bench lifted straight out of an Alma Tadema painting, reading a great book, appreciating the view between page turnings and soaking up the sun. Mom, parked on the other end of the long pool, was watercolouring the scene. A blissful and calming start to a week's holiday.
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