The 29 indoor galleries present only original works of art, produced by ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan craftsmen. Unlike most museums, which arrange their displays of ancient art chronologically or by medium, the Getty Villa galleries are organized thematically. They represent a journey through the original context and meaning of the objects, and highlight the diverse roles they played in the societies that produced them. The ground-floor themed galleries include: Theater and Spectacle, Gods and Goddesses and Mythological Heroes, among others. The second-floor galleries offer a glimpse into the worlds of women and children, athletes and competition and ancient religious offerings, as well as a treasury containing a wealth of ancient coins, cut gemstones and jewelry. More intimate galleries throughout the museum display tantalizing selections of luxury artifacts such as jewelry, silver, fresco paintings and statuary, and artifacts made of specific materials (including terra cotta, glass, marble and bronze).

The best place to begin this journey is in the TimeScape Room, which neatly lays out historical developments of the ancient world, starting with the oldest artifacts in the galleries dating back as early as 6500 B.C., up to 500 A.D. However, most of the works in the Getty Villa collection were created between 700 B.C. and 300 A.D.
 
Displayed in a special "temple" gallery is the more than life-sized statue of Hercules, titled the Lansdowne Herakles, a Roman copy of a 300 B.C. Greek original, found in 1790 near the ruins of emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli above Rome, and sold to the English aristocrat Lord Lansdowne in 1792. Getty acquired the prized piece in 1951 for $18,000. Surrounded by a circular geometric-patterned marble floor, an exact replica of a floor discovered at the Villa dei Papiri, this particular statue is credited with inspiring Getty to build his museum in the style of an ancient Roman villa. Other major highlights include a questionable kouros (at present, neither scientists nor art historians have been able to authenticate it as a 530 B.C. sculpture) and the statue of a Victorious Youth, displayed in a temperature-controlled room due to its fragile condition. This rare bronze was found encrusted with shells, coral and mud in an ancient shipwreck, and is one of the few surviving life-sized bronze statues of the Hellenistic period, (323–30 B.C.).
 
Several other second-floor galleries provide space for changing exhibitions from institutions including the British Museum, the Musée du Louvre and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Co-curated by Getty scholars and curators, and enhanced by pieces from the Getty antiquities collection and Getty Research Institute collections, these special exhibitions are more specifically focused. Since the Villa’s reopening in 2006, special exhibitions have included a pre-eminent collection of mosaics of Roman Africa (which today is Tunisia); great masterpieces of Athenian pottery produced from 550 to 340 B.C.; and artifacts from the first Greek colonies established in the late seventh century B.C. on the Black Sea, which displayed pieces of jewelry that have been called the most majestic of Greek gold and precious gem workmanship ever found.
 
Presently on display in a small sunlit second-floor gallery is a special exhibition entitled "The Herculaneum Women and the Origins of Archaeology," featuring two elegantly draped and exceedingly lifelike female statues (first-century A.D. Roman copies of fourth-century B.C. Greek statues) which have been at the center of the Dresden State Art Collection’s antiquities collection since 1736. These statues have a particular significance to the Getty Villa, as they were the first finds to be unearthed at Herculaneum in 1711. They were discovered at the end of a deep shaft by workers digging a well into dense layered volcanic deposits while constructing a country estate for the royal Austrian general, Prince d’Elboeuf, on the Bay of Naples. Not only did the near-perfect female statues reveal the first traces of subterranean treasures buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but the figures are linked to the birth of archaeology as a scientific discipline.
 
Of the Herculaneum women Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, says, "The history of these statues closely links them to the Getty Villa, which is modeled after the ancient Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, and thus ultimately owes its existence to the discovery of these two statues." On loan from Dresden, the two ideal visitors will be exhibited at the Villa over the next year.

As with any archaeological site, the significance of the finds depends on what you’re seeking. Thus, the Getty Villa can be discovered as an individual experience through its antiquities collection, architecture, special exhibitions and theater, or as an imaginary journey back in time. The choice is yours.

GETTY VILLAGE EXPERIENCES
"Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome" (now through Jan. 14) and "The Magnificent Piranesi" (Dec. 6–March 10). Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades. 310.440.7300. getty.edu/visit
Related reading: The Getty Villa (Getty Trust Publications, 2005) Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum (Getty Trust Publications, 2007). Ashen Sky: The Letters of Pliny the Younger on the Eruption of Vesuvius (Getty Trust Publications, 2007).

Los Angeles correspondent Diane Rozas is co-author of American Venus: The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson, Model and Muse.