Antiquities

The Antiquities Collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum was initially formed by Mr. Getty himself. It was one of the three primary areas of interest for him, and he particularly liked Roman sculpture. He was quite fond of the Roman emperors and empresses and collected portraits of them. Some of those pieces are among the finest works that we have in the collection today. The collection ranges in date from the Neolithic period of about 6500 BC until the late Roman period, the 5th and the 6th centuries AD. The objects in the collection are made from a variety of materials including marble, bronze, clay and glass. When visitors come to the Getty Villa, they'll find the collections arranged thematically. Some of the groupings include Dionysus in the theater, gods and goddesses, women and children in antiquity, and prehistoric and bronze age arts. One of my favorite galleries is Stories of the Trojan War. It displays the works of art that illustrate these great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The objects in the gallery show how artists took these literary works and reinterpreted them in a visual media. The museum and its collections are now the centerpiece of an expanded mission at the Getty Villa, which includes theatrical and other public programs, a research library and related scholarly activities, and a conservation training program that will teach young scientists how to care and protect the artifacts that have survived from the ancient world. One of my favorite works of art in the collection is a small marble sculpture of a man. It was created in the Cyclades about 2500 BC, and it depicts him sitting holding a harp in his lap. It's a particularly interesting depiction because we can see him cradling his instrument with his head lifted back as if he's about to sing.