Introducing a New Home for Getty’s Stories
Scribe Writing (Detail), probably Eadmer of Canterbury, about 1140–1150; Tempera colors, gold paint, and ink on parchment, Leaf: 7 × 4 1/4 in., Ms. Ludwig XI 6 (83.MN.125), fol. 2v
Ten years ago, we held a contest, asking Getty staff to name our brand new blog. The winner was “The Iris,” because it signified seeing, and celebrated Van Gogh’s Irises, one of the Museum’s most viewed paintings. It also evoked the...
Mesopotamia: Tales from a Delayed Exhibition
Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins was installed at the Getty Villa in February and March 2020 but has not been open to visitors. Artworks in the exhibition include loans from Musée du Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Musée Auguste Grasset – Varzy.
In July of 2019, a team of Getty staff was in Paris to examine artworks—some nearly 5000 years old—that would travel to Los...
Rethinking Descriptions of Black Africans in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art
Museums have much work to do. The Black Lives Matter movement’s call for social reform extends to arts institutions, bringing focus to the need for inclusivity and equity. The ways in which we present and describe artworks in our care are central to these efforts. In the Getty Museum’s Antiquities department, we have turned our attention to artifacts that depict—or have been thought to depict—Black Africans....
The Wild Holiday That Turned Ancient Rome Upside Down
Fresco Panel Depicting Dionysos and Ariadne (detail), A.D. 1–79, Roman. Fresco, 37 × 36 5/8 in. J. Paul Getty Museum, 83.AG.222.3.1. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program
Happy Saturnalia! This ancient Roman holiday honors Saturn, the god of seed-sowing, and celebrates the promise of a spring harvest. Originally just one day, over the centuries the festivities grew to last a whole week, starting...
How Did Ancient Greeks and Romans Celebrate Special Occasions?
If the ancient Greeks and Romans were still around today, we might say they “know how to party.”With dozens of gods and goddesses to celebrate, plus birthdays and other religious holidays like Saturnalia, the Greeks and Romans had many opportunities for revelry and merrymaking throughout the year. And they sure took advantage! Modern party-goers would feel right at home among many Greek and Roman party traditions, like drinking wine, enjoying cake, and giving gifts. Then again, ancient...
Keeping Warm the Roman Way
Images of Italy and the Mediterranean generally include bright sun shining on sparkling water and dusty groves of olive trees.In fact, according to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who wrote a 10-volume treatise on architecture in the first century, “Divine providence has so ordered it that the metropolis of the Roman people is placed in an excellent and temperate climate, whereby they have become the masters of the world.”
But even in that balmy region, winter brought a chill, and even masters of...
The Fight to Preserve an Ancient Homeland in Syria
Born and raised in Palmyra, Syria, Waleed Khaled al-As’ad can trace his family’s lineage in the city back five generations.Now a refugee in France, he hopes to someday return to Palmyra, an important world heritage site that suffered widespread destruction by ISIS in 2015 and 2017.
In Return to Palmyra— a follow-up to Getty’s first online exhibition, The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra—al-As’ad explains what it was like growing up near such imposing ruins while being mentored by his distinguished...
A Lesson in Resilience from Ancient Dates
What does an ancient date taste like? Scientists recently found out.Sarah Sallon, a doctor at the Natural Medicine Research Center in Hadassah, and Elaine Solowey, an expert in arid agriculture, wanted to see if they could germinate the ancient seeds of a date palm excavated at Masada near the Dead Sea. In the fall of 2020, dates with a chewy texture, and a subtle sweetness were harvested.
The connection to the past brought hope. “In these troubled times of climate change, pollution and...
See the Faces of People Who Lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire
In Egypt, it was customary to mummify the deceased and create a likeness of them, often in the form of a mummy mask or an anthropoid (human-form) coffin.From the first to third centuries AD, after Egypt had become a province of the Roman Empire, the traditional practice of mummification continued but a new trend also arose: some individuals chose to be represented in portraits painted on thin wooden panels or linen burial shrouds that were affixed to their mummy wrappings. These mummy...
A Gem of a Mystery
Antiquities curator Kenneth Lapatin has spent much of the pandemic doing detective work on a 200-year-old cold case—a beautiful carved “ancient” amethyst in the Getty collection that turned out to be a modern forgery.Questions were first raised about the gem’s authenticity in 2009, and by 2012 Lapatin had seen enough evidence to know that the gem was not ancient, as had been believed for hundreds of years.
Instead, it was a 19th-century forgery, carved by Giovanni Calandrelli for Prince...
Turning to Art to Tell the Story of Passover
On Saturday night, Jews around the world will sit down to celebrate Passover, recounting the exodus from Egypt and the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery.The service, or seder, is framed around an evening meal and features poetry and songs, digression and discussion, four cups of wine, and an array of symbolic foods. All—from the most experienced to those attending for the first time—are actively encouraged to participate. Setting the proceedings in motion is the inquiry traditionally...
Where Did Writing Come From?
In a world in which immediate access to words and information is taken for granted, it is hard to imagine a time when writing began.Archaeological discoveries in ancient Mesopotamia (now mostly modern Iraq) show the initial power and purpose of writing, from administrative and legal functions to poetry and literature.
Mesopotamia was a region comprising many cultures over time speaking different languages. The earliest known writing was invented there around 3400 B.C. in an area called Sumer...
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