Get ready for Getty

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A replica depicting a drunken faun overlooks the garden pool at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles. (STEFANO PALTERA / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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The amphitheatre and entrance to the villa. (STEFANO PALTERA / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

MALIBU -- It's a moment fixed in a distant time, yet you're experiencing it on a cliff high above the Pacific Ocean and modern Los Angeles.

You're plunged back to another millennium, experiencing the architectural beauty of a Roman basilica as it was in the first century, A.D. Its various features, all of them stunning, immediately compete for your attention: a dramatic barrel-vaulted ceiling with intricate scroll decorations inspired by the Roman baths at Pompeii; a patterned floor recreated from ancient marble -- white, yellow, purple -- and green Egyptian granite; a further orgy of marble -- black, yellow, red, white -- in the Corinthian capitals which top the eight graceful pillars which line each side of this opulent interior.

There's plenty more to notice in this single space, from the delicate onyx panelling which lines the narrow side aisles to the remarkable alabaster windows which bathe the ancient statues of gods and goddesses in a soft light. But the Basilica is only one astonishment amid many.

A visit to the Getty Villa, which reopened in 2006 following a $275-million restoration and expansion, throws up surprises at every turn. The eye-filling Basilica is typical of the spaces that invite you to linger indefinitely. But perhaps the beating heart of the Villa is to be found in the Temple of Herakles which you approach through a modest vestibule. Once you arrive, your senses are immediately assaulted by the colourful marble floor with its alternating triangles, but your attention is ultimately drawn towards the niche at the far end and a striking 850-pound marble statue of a nude Hercules, one hand wielding the club with which he slew the Nubian lion, the other clutching the pelt of his quarry.

The statue was unearthed during 18th-century excavations near Pompeii and fell into the hands of Britain's Lansdowne family. Oil billionaire J. Paul Getty purchased it from the Marquis of Lansdowne in 1951, and considered it the most important work of art in his collection -- one which he wished to share with the world.

The Getty Villa is a free attraction, one which draws visitors from tens of thousands of kilometres away. The only outlay required from you is an $8 parking charge, and even that can be waived if you decide to take public transit instead. Once inside, you're plunged into a treasure house of recreated architecture and landscaping which provide a striking setting for more than 1,200 priceless antiquities.

Getty viewed his art collection as a public trust. In 1954, he opened the J. Paul Getty Museum in the ranch house of his 64-acre Malibu estate to showcase a portion of that collection which included Greek and Roman antiquities, 18th century furniture, and European paintings. Four years later, he decided to indulge his obsession with ancient Mediterranean culture by building a Roman-style villa, inspired by the Villa dei Papiri, a luxurious country house buried by the Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79 and not excavated until the 18th century. This new home for his art opened in 1974 and became a California cultural landmark.

Getty died at the age of 81 in 1976 without every having visited his remarkable creation. But his legacy continued to transform the cultural landscape of a state he loved. He left the museum four million shares of Getty Oil stock, which at the time was worth $700 million, and this led to the decision by the J. Paul Getty Trust to broaden public access to its astonishing holdings by building another museum -- known today as the Getty Center -- as the centrepiece of a 750-acre site in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking West Los Angeles.

When the new Getty Center opened in 1997, its four pavillions featured all the public Getty collections except for the antiquities. The latter would be reserved for a reborn Villa which the trustees envisaged as something unique -- the Western Hemisphere's only museum devoted to Greek, Roman and Etruscan art.

Some critics continue to carp that the villa constitutes a Disneyfication of museum culture, but Villa administrators have been scrupulous in emphasizing what is authentic and what has been recreated.

For example, the outdoor statues are impeccable copies, but the 23 indoor galleries are restricted to the real thing. Those galleries, devoted to the Getty Trust's priceless permanent collection, are dramatically organized by themes -- including Gods and Goddesses, Monsters, Minor Deities, Women and Children in Antiquity, Athletics, Griffins and Sagas of the Trojan War. Their impact is powerful.

The Getty Villa's mission is straightforward -- to foster the study of the classical world and its relationship to other cultures, to expose a wide audience to great works of art, to promote the conservation of antiquities, to encourage scholarly research. But it is also the warmest and most inviting of attractions.

-- Canwest News Service

The Getty Villa is located in the Greater Los Angeles area, at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, approximately 40 kilometres west of Greater Los Angeles. It is open Thursday to Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but there is an $8 parking fee. The Villa can also be reached by public transit on Metro Bus 434. An advance ticket is required and may be booked online at www.getty.edu or by phone at 310-440-7300.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 4, 2009 E5