The Getty Villa - Malibu, California - Part 1

In 1968 J. Paul Getty started building a re-creation of a first-century Roman country home, the Villa dei Papiri, on property he owned on the coast in Malibu, California.  It opened in 1974 as the J. Paul Getty Museum.  In 1997 the Malibu property was closed for renovation, and the same year the current J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center opened to the public.  The renovation of the Villa was completed and the property re-opened as the Getty Villa in 2006.  The Villa museum is dedicated to the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.  We visited the Villa last week.

The architecture is every bit as interesting as the art.  The Villa is modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a Roman country house in Herculaneum buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.  Because most of the Villa dei Papiri remains unexcavated, many of the Getty Villa's architectural details are based on elements found on other ancient Roman homes in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae.

Here's Zeus.  In the gallery which is linked at the end of this post you see where Zeus photobombed the selfie that Heather and I took in this gallery.

There was an entire room with just portrait busts and carvings of Roman women.

And another with just Roman men.

And a hallway full of animals.  I particularly liked this bear and lion.

Click here to see more images from our visit to the Getty Villa in Malibu, California.