• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Classics Professor David Blank holds a model of a papyrus scroll much like the ones discovered in

Photo

The Getty Villa in Malibu reopens after an extensive renovation. The museum, modeled after an anc

Brooding on the horizon in 79 A.D., the temperamental Mount Vesuvius expunged its molten rock onto extravagant villas and slave quarters alike.

In that year, a slice of ancient Roman society in all its pomp and circumstance became indelibly preserved and simultaneously hidden to human eyes.

Hundreds of years later, classical archaeologists uncovered sites such as one hidden by the lava of Mount Vesuvius. The fruits of these excavations offer both classicists and the general public a glimpse into ancient life.

It is in this spirit of appreciation and understanding that the recent opening of the Getty Villa in Malibu is being celebrated. For the UCLA community, that also means new programs and facilities to take advantage of.

The museum, bordered by the Pacific Ocean and coastal mountains, has been closed since 1997 for an extensive renovation that included an architectural makeover and state-of-the-art upgrades to its artistic and educational facilities.

“The Getty Villa, which was the site of the original J. Paul Getty Museum, has been a significant cultural landmark in Los Angeles for some time, and one that our trustees and staff are pleased to share again with a variety of audiences,” said Barry Munitz, president and chief executive officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, in a press release.

Showcasing everything from religious vessels with Greek and Roman gods to coins, gems and bronze statutes, Getty Villa is a testament to the spirit of classical exploration and preservation.

“Recently transformed, this companion setting to the Getty Center in Los Angeles will be an important gateway connecting today’s visitors to the ancient world,” Munitz added in the press release.

In the same way the Villa provides a link between the public and antiquity, the ancient sites that have been excavated link museums to educational institutions such as UCLA.

From the archaeologically famous site of Pompeii to the underwater Uluburun Shipwreck, excavation sites often act like strings tying together experts from universities and museums alike.

In fact, one of the towns buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius has both directly and tangentially linked Getty Villa and UCLA to one another.

Destroyed by the “pyroclastic flow” from the volcano, Herculaneum and the wealthy Roman villas for which it was known was buried by a mixture of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments and volcanic gas.

Located in the Bay of Naples, Herculaneum was a seaside resort used by wealthy Romans as an escape from hectic city life. For classicists, that meant that expensive pieces of art and libraries of papyrus were most likely buried underneath the hardened lava.

What workers found in 1752 was just that: a wealthy villa with an extraordinarily large library of charred scrolls of papyrus.

Called the Villa dei Papiri, the villa housed papyrus pieces that enthused classicists who were hoping to learn more about ancient literary works. The villa’s high quality of preservation also inspired lovers of antiquity.

In fact, Getty Villa is a modern replica of the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum.

Having made trips to the Bay of Naples since 1995, David Blank, a UCLA classics professor, has been translating and unrolling these ancient papyrus scrolls as part of the Philodemus Project.

The complicated and arduous history of the unraveling of the scrolls began in the late 18th century and continues today, Blank said.

During the first excavations, the scrolls were thought to be congealed sticks of charcoal, so one can only imagine the difficulty required to open and read them, Blank said.

In fact, at one point the scrolls’ outer layers were pulverized with the butt of a knife so that their interiors could be slowly unrolled, he said.

With the help of technological advancements, some of which were adapted from Brigham Young University’s work with the Dead Sea Scrolls, classicists have been able to decipher the texts.

Most of the scrolls unraveled from the Villa dei Papiri turned out to be the writing of Philodemus, an epicurean philosopher.

“(Philodemus) thought that it wasn’t possible for music to be educative. He wrote that music stayed in the ear and couldn’t possibly affect the soul because the ear was an irrational organ,” said Blank, whose work with the scrolls concerns the works of Philodemus.

Aside from viewing the tangible items extracted from the Villa dei Papiri, Getty Villa visitors will be able to observe the Villa’s influence in the architecture and layout of the actual museum.

Complete with grand garden columns and a picturesque pool, Getty Villa is not only a receptacle for ancient art, but a representation of it as well.

While much of the superstructure of the villa in Herculaneum remains unexposed, its general outlay is well-known, said Susan Downey, a UCLA classics and art history professor.

For that reason, it was a perfect model for duplication.

In 1968, businessman and philanthropist J. Paul Getty began planning the construction of a Roman-style villa that would come to house world-class antiquities.

In the early 1970s he sought the help of UCLA alumnus Norman Neuerburg. With a doctorate in art history and hands-on experience from his years in Italy, Neuerburg, who died in 1997, traveled to England often to speak with Getty about the villa, said Downey, who was a good friend of Neuerburg’s.

“He was really excited about it,” Downey said in regard to the ancient architectural elements Neuerburg had planned for the Getty Villa.

Weighing in on anything from the decorative elements on the rooftops to the garden statuaries, Neuerburg acted as one of the major historical consultants at the Getty Villa.

Neuerburg had decorated his own home with ancient motifs, but working on such a grand scale at the Villa “was a thrill for him,” said Downey.

Now that the newly renovated Villa is open to the public, the architectural elements that once inspired Neuerburg will be on display once again.

After years of waiting for the Villa to open, classics professors at UCLA are excited they’ll be able to take advantage of its facilities.

Professor Robert Gurval often teaches a general education class on Roman culture and hopes to enhance the course by taking his students on tours of Getty Villa.

A new masters program, cosponsored by the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Technology and the Getty, will allow its students to get a UC diploma and use the conservation facilities at the Villa.