Proof that
I was here!!!
The Getty Villa is a beautiful, mansion-like, white-marbled, Roman-inspired location in Malibu, CA. The careful architecture of the place itself speaks volumes about the artwork, sculpture, and glass work it contains.
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| The Villa has beautiful gardens with flowing fountains; however, the fountains were drained due to the ongoing CA drought. However, I gained inside knowledge from an employee that cracks in the entire basis of these fountains and their marble has lead to water leakage down through to the parking garage. But also, if water is added into these fountains, the cracks may soften and deepen, and the whole structure you see in this image will simply collapse in on itself. How can we save these fountains? Sounds like engineering and art will have to merge to solve this problem! |
Something that I noticed during my experience at the Villa was how many sculptures were restored. It is very hard to keep a large body of work completely intact, especially because it may be transported numerous times, and as time passes, wear and tear alter the masterpiece. I thought about how, in Walter Benjamin's article "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", he wrote that "1900 technical reproduction...permitted...reproduc[tion] [of] all transmitted works of art", but reproductions are lacking in 'aura', a certain "presence in time and space, [a] unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Although reparations and reconstructions have been made on many statues at the Getty museum, people from all over the world still visit it to see these original masterpieces, because however altered, they still exude the authentic aura, and they hold the entire history of the original artist's idea.
Parts of this famous "Lansdowne Hercules'" arm, leg, and face were restored. This process involves restorers reworking broken surfaces and replacing lost pieces with great artistic skill.
Side Note: This sculpture was restored in Rome after its discovery in 1790, and sold to English aristocrat Lord Lansdowne in 1792. In 1951, Paul Getty purchased this work, and fell in love with it--enough to inspire him to build the Getty Villa in the style of an ancient Roman Villa, with a special room dedicated to display this statue.
Another aspect of this museum also reminded me of the connection of art and science studied in this course: the art and science of glass-blowing. Glass-blowing has multiple forms, and there are many glassmaking techniques used since ancient times. For example:
- Casting and Core Forming:
a ceramic-like core forms around a metal rod and is encased in glass--technique used for over 1,500 years!
- Mosaic Glass:
Made up of small pieces of glass sliced off from moldable rods of differing colors. These are merged together and manipulated into patterns under intense heat.
- Inflation:
Revolutionary for the glass industry, artists discovered that molten glass could be blown up into a bubble at the end of a hollow tube.
- Mold Blowing:
Designs are carved into molds, and liquid glass is poured into them. Stone, clay, bronze, and plaster were all materials used to make molds.
It is apparent that glass-making is a form of chemistry, with heat (up to 2,500 degrees F) being applied to molten glass, and then cooled in order for the properties to change and settle into a solid, delicate, material, that holds the shape of which the glassmaker blew it into. Artists who work with molten glass must understand the chemical properties of glass, and therefore are skilled in artistic as well as scientific abilities.
Finally, I think this optical illusory work of art is so fascinating:
If you stare right at it's center, the rest of the painting seems to be in motion. This use of a backdrop of triangles and spiraling circles create this interesting illusion. The Roman artist tied in a knowledge of geometry as well as artistic perspective to construct this piece.
Works Cited:
The J. Paul Getty Museum: Handbook of the Collections. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007. Print.
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