The ancients cast in new light

J. PAUL GETTY’S favorite statue of Hercules dominates a breathtaking space -- as usual. Clenching a lion skin in one hand and hefting a club over the opposite shoulder, the life-size marble figure presides over a round, shrine-like gallery inspired by a room in an Italian seaside estate that perished when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.

The gallery -- called the Temple of Herakles, in a nod to the mythological hero’s Greek name -- has retained its original travertine niche and marble floor, with triangular patterns radiating from the center like petals of a flower. But brick walls have been replaced by ochre- colored plaster with a seductive, suede-like texture. The smooth dome, once decorated with mosaics, has been supplanted by a coffered hemisphere, like the ceiling of Rome’s classical Pantheon. And the 1,400-pound statue stands on a new seismic isolator, invisibly attached to the floor.

Much has changed at the Getty Villa in Malibu -- scheduled to open Jan. 28 after undergoing a $275-million, eight-year renovation -- and yet much remains the same. Boston-based architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti have converted the former all-purpose museum into a study center for the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria, with expanded facilities for antiquities conservation, public programs and scholarly activities. Startlingly new structures have risen on the spectacular 64-acre site, but the museum at the heart of the complex has retained its original character. Although many parts of the building have been dismantled and reconstructed, the changes can be subtle, if not imperceptible.

The long-anticipated opening is Southern California’s biggest art and architecture event of the year. Many insiders who have previewed the Villa have marveled at the complexity of the project. Although art critics have yet to weigh in, a few architecture critics have put their opinions in print.

Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times praised the Villa as “an exquisite work of architecture” but concluded that “the fun is gone.”

In sharp contrast, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne deemed the design “a useful road map for future development in ever-more-crowded Los Angeles -- a fresh, thoughtful means of figuring out how to deal with the baldly striving architectural landmarks that abound here.” The 1974 museum building, designed by Langdon Wilson Architects with historical consultant Norman Neuerburg, he wrote, “is not just more open but more comfortable in its own skin. Asked to do less, it appears capable of doing more.”

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NEW MEETS OLD

VISITORS will enter the museum through the atrium, the historically correct main entrance, instead of wending their way around the outer peristyle garden, as in the past. Those with sharp memories of the pre-renovation Villa will see at a glance that the atrium and second-floor galleries have new windows and skylights and that antiquities have replaced the European paintings and French furniture now displayed at the Getty Center in Brentwood. They will also discover that the museum has acquired a superb collection of ancient glass.

But few will notice alterations in the Temple of Herakles or such other changes as climate-controlled environments, security-glass-encased cabinets and new mounts for every single object. Even fewer will detect major infrastructure improvements such as steel reinforcements embedded in walls and floors, data ports under removable floor plates and a huge tunnel connecting the loading dock in a recently constructed office building with the museum’s new freight elevator. Much of the money spent on the Villa paid for things the public will never see.

Transformed as it may be, the Getty Villa still embodies the passions of a notoriously tightfisted art collector who loved classical history and had dreams of grandeur. The Hercules sculpture, a Roman interpretation of the Greek hero, is said to have inspired him to build his 1st century, Roman-style villa with a special room for the statue. The museum in Malibu is a re-creation of Villa dei Papiri, the largest and most luxurious residence found during the 1700s at the village of Herculaneum, near Pompeii. The site has yet to be fully excavated, but exploratory tunnels yielded enough information to map the house. Still, Getty’s version is a pastiche, incorporating elements of more accessible buildings of the same period.

Getty bought the Hercules for a bargain $18,500 in 1951, when collecting antiquities was out of fashion. Unearthed at Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli in 1790, it landed in London in Lord Lansdowne’s collection and became known as the Lansdowne Herakles. At Getty’s death in 1976, the sculpture was part of a trove of about 1,600 Greek and Roman antiquities, 17th and 18th century French decorative arts and Old Master paintings housed in Malibu.

Thanks to the bequest of the oil man’s immense fortune, the collection has expanded enormously since then. With European art and an international cache of photographs ensconced at the Getty Center, the Villa’s entire exhibition space is devoted to antiquities -- among the world’s leading troves of ancient art. The bulk of the 44,000-piece antiquities holding is study material. Of the roughly 2,000 displayable items, about 1,200 are in the inaugural installation, three times the former 400-piece sampling.

But just as the Villa’s doors are about to open, the antiquities collection is under a cloud of legal inquiry and international controversy. Marion True -- the Getty’s longtime antiquities curator, credited with raising the standards of collecting established by a predecessor -- guided the Villa’s renovation and wrote a book on the facility’s history and reincarnation with architect Silvetti. But she is on trial in Rome on charges of criminal conspiracy to receive stolen goods. The Getty and True maintain she is innocent, but the Italian government has asked for about three dozen objects it claims were looted, in addition to three items recently returned by the Getty. Greek authorities also want something from the Getty: four other antiquities, said to have been illegally removed from their country.

True resigned in early October, ending her 23-year tenure after officials of the Getty Trust determined she had violated policies by accepting an art dealer’s help with a loan on a house in Greece. Karol Wight, a 20-year Getty veteran who specializes in ancient glass, was appointed acting curator.

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ON A TIMELINE

WITH some of the objects sought by the Italians and the Greeks now installed in the Villa’s refurbished galleries -- including a towering limestone and marble statue thought to depict Aphrodite -- the timing of the opening may be terrible. But for members of the public snapping up free tickets for scheduled visits, the Villa is a landmark destination that has been closed far too long, one about to begin its new life with a staff of roughly 250.

“The floor plan is very much the same,” Wight said, plunging into a preview tour of the museum, “but the collection is installed thematically. One of the primary reasons we decided to make this change is the ground plan of the Villa itself. It’s domestic architecture, a series of large and small rooms, many of which are unconnected, so it has always been difficult to create a sensible flow of spaces like that at institutions where grand halls march one right after the other.

“We had done a thematic installation with the Fleischman collection in 1994,” she said of an exhibition of antiquities acquired by the Getty in 1996. “It was extremely well received by the public, and it made the objects more interesting and dynamic, so we decided to take that approach with the permanent collection. We wanted to make the objects more accessible to visitors who may not be familiar with Greek and Roman history. But in doing so, we faced a huge educational challenge in conveying that historical information.”

The solution, designed by the education department, is the high-tech TimeScape room.

“It’s the ancient world in a nutshell,” Wight said. “There’s a linear timeline of Greece, Rome and Etruria, so that you can see how these three separate cultures interrelated chronologically and culturally. There’s a digital map. You can zoom around the Mediterranean and see the expansion and retraction of the Roman Empire, for example. Artistic styles are addressed as well, so I imagine a lot of school groups will start there, to get an overview before moving into the galleries.”

Some of those groups will probably stop at the nearby Family Forum as well. For the introductory round of activities, the education department has focused on ancient vases. Kids will be invited to draw on molded resin forms, emulate black figure compositions in shadow plays and peer into a simulated kiln to see how ceramics are fired.

But most of the museum’s 28 galleries are devoted to fine art, in rooms that are much more familiar. The stone-clad Hall of Colored Marble and barrel-ceilinged Basilica were left largely intact. Other galleries have new terrazzo floors, based on Roman mosaic patterns and embedded with Roman numerals marking the progression of galleries. A painted black band runs around the bottom edge of most gallery walls, but color schemes vary. The extensive palette is keyed to the art and coordinated so that views cutting through several spaces are harmonious.

“I think we had 2 1/2 years of color selection meetings,” Wight said. “They became grueling endurance tests, but it all paid off.”

Labels were also a huge project, she said. “We were very concerned about having as clean a display area as possible, without letters or numbers to cross-reference. We put little icons on the labels, so you can find an object immediately and still have a beautifully designed layout. Text panels on the walls have timelines across the bottom, just to remind visitors of the time spans of these different cultures, with the earliest and latest piece in each gallery illustrated to show the chronological parameters of the room.”

As for themes of the displays, Wight said, “we started with the obvious: men and women, daily life, religion, gods and goddesses, mythology. But we built on strengths of the collection as much as anything.” A large gallery devoted to “Dionysus and the Theater,” for example, was inspired by the Fleischman collection’s emphasis on theater-related material. “We put the gallery close to the outdoor theater, with the hope that visitors will come in before performances or during intermissions to see art related to the drama being presented,” she said.

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HEROES COME ALIVE

ON the opposite side of the atrium, a large gallery of gods and goddesses examines major deities of Greece, Rome and Etruria. The Hall of Colored Marble holds luxury silver vessels, as in the past. The adjacent Basilica, patterned after a room that might have been used for worship, continues to offer representations of gods. Next comes the Temple of Herakles, which introduces the theme of heroes.

“One of the joys of doing a thematic installation like this is being able to mix and match the material,” Wight said. Having more space for antiquities also presents new possibilities. One major Greek ensemble -- portraying Orpheus and two half-bird, half-human sirens in terra cotta -- was formerly displayed against a wall with the mythological characters side by side. Now they are in a more dynamic arrangement in the center of a gallery, with the sirens on high pedestals, as if perched on cliffs while singing to the seated poet.

A gallery focusing on heroes in literature offers vignettes of romance and high drama. A marble basin in the center of the room depicts Achilles receiving a set of armor from one goddess on a sea horse and two others mounted on sea monsters. Artworks illustrating such episodes from Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” have literary citations on their labels. Books will be available in the gallery so that visitors can look up the citations and “read all about it,” as Wight puts it.

Upstairs, where gallery walls were formerly covered with dark fabric and daylight was strictly limited to protect the art, new skylights and windows around the inner peristyle create a warm ambience and expansive vistas in a much-less-cluttered setting. Several galleries explore aspects of daily life, including occupations of working-class men, drinking festivals and celebrations, representations of women and children, and likenesses of birds and animals. One of the oldest objects, a prehistoric terra cotta vessel from Cyprus, depicts the process of bread making on one side, but the scene on the other side is a matter of scholarly debate.

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ODE TO ATHLETICISM

THE perennially debatable Kouros is here too, in a room dedicated to athletes and competitions. The Getty purchased the monumental male nude figure as an archaic Greek work in 1985, but its veracity has been seriously questioned. With the matter unresolved, the marble sculpture is labeled as Greek, circa 530 BC, or a modern forgery. Nearby, the “Statue of a Victorious Youth,” popularly known as “The Getty Bronze,” has a new home in a more intimate, humidity-controlled environment.

“I think we are a PG museum,” Wight said, walking into a gallery of coins, jewelry and ceramic fragments that invite close inspection -- and, despite the claim to the contrary, do reveal a few X-rated tidbits. Among other surprises, the Getty’s small holding of Egyptian material from the Greco-Roman period includes a mummy, on view for the first time, along with mummy portraits.

A representative sampling of the museum’s recently acquired, 412-piece glass collection is installed in one of the galleries designated for temporary exhibitions. Amassed by the late German collector Erwin Oppenlander, the works span the second millennium BC to the 11th century.

“He had incredible taste,” Wight said of the collector, “not only for the beauty of the objects but for desiring a collection that was as full chronologically as possible. For the museum, this was one of the last areas of the antiquities collection that really needed development.”

Another temporary exhibition, “Antiquity & Photography,” is a collaborative effort of the museum and the Getty Research Institute, presenting images of archeological sites around the Mediterranean by pioneering photographers. Finally, “The Getty Villa Reimagined” reflects on the Villa’s history and tracks the progress of the renovation in a gallery jampacked with models, drawings, photographs and video.

“I worked side by side with Marion on the architecture project for 10 years and the installation project for eight years,” Wight said, perusing the display. “It makes home remodeling seem simple. It was such a learning process. Every detail had to be complementary.”

The renovation was a hugely complex collaboration. While curators worked out aesthetic issues with architects and designers, conservators consulted with architects, engineers and contractors to secure the best environment for the collection.

The goal was to transform a beloved landmark while maintaining its essence. Through ancient art and contemporary architecture, the renovated Villa is intended to help visitors understand and appreciate cultures that are far away in time but not in significance.

Whether the message resonates with the public remains to be seen, but not for long. It’s almost time to bring in the crowds.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Advancing the state of the arts

New systems rolled out at the Villa foster preservation and enhance the viewing experience.

Putting up walls

GALLERY walls are reinforced with the ultimate pegboard, a four-layer network of heavy steel supports designed to hold objects weighing more than 1,000 pounds. The system consists of perforated horizontal rails that allow marble reliefs, exhibition cases and pedestals to be attached to walls with no visible means of support. “We don’t have to tear out walls anymore,” said antiquities conservator Jerry Podany. “We simply measure up from the floor, measure over from one of the adjoining halls, and we are in a very close proximity to a set of holes in the beams. Those can take an enormous amount of weight. And the cases can be bolted to the walls.”

On the case

CUSTOM-DESIGNED bronze and glass exhibit cases at the Villa may look simple, but they are loaded with technical wonders. Internal environmental controls create microclimates suited to each material -- dry for metal and humid for clay. “The metals we keep as low as possible; most of them hover around 18% or 20% relative humidity,” Podany said. “The organic materials are buffered at 50%.” Fiber-optic lighting provides dramatic illumination for the ancient artworks without potentially destructive heat or color distortion. Crystal clear, nonreflective, low-iron security glass provides a high level of safety in walls that all but disappear.

Feeling the earth move

SEISMIC isolators are hidden in the bases of large sculptures and particularly fragile objects likely to topple in an earthquake. Featuring a complex stabilization system, the isolators can absorb up to 80% of ground movement while allowing the artworks to remain relatively still. Getty conservators and mount makers -- who pioneered the development of the devices, now widely used in museums in earthquake-prone territories -- created new isolator bases for more than a dozen works on display at the Villa. Some bases are bolted directly to the floor; others are sandwiched between display cases and pedestals, which are attached to the floor. The largest isolator base, measuring 55 inches by 77 inches, protects the three large terra cotta figures of “Seated Poet and Sirens.”

Explanations with ease

THE new labeling system designed for artworks displayed in cases at the Villa’s Roman-style museum provides maximal information with minimal clutter. “We were very concerned about having as clean a display area as possible,” said acting antiquities curator Karol Wight. Instead of tagging each item with a number or letter and expecting visitors to find a corresponding block of text, exhibition designers devised a new system and tested it at the Getty Center museum. A single panel mounted under each case offers an easily identifiable icon of each piece with a brief description, including date, material, iconography and function.

-- S.M.

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Getting into the Villa

Admission to the Getty Villa is free, but advance, timed tickets are required and parking costs $7 per car. Tickets are available at www.getty.eduor by calling (310) 440-7300.