ATM: Art, Tiles, Mosaics... an adventure in creativity

I Lived to see Herculaneum

I had the good fortune to snag a ticket for the lecture yesterday at the Getty Villa on Herculaneum: Conserving and Interpreting the Roman Past with architect Gionata Rizzi. Although I've been looking forward to this for weeks I had a relapse of the "fluey thing" and after retreating to my bed for two hours wondered if the trek over there would kill me. But I decided dying doing something I enjoy was better than passing away in bed... how boring. So I got dressed, put gas in the car, and jumped into the worst traffic I have seen in a long time. Fortunately I was meeting a friend who arrived early enough to save two good seats for this sold out event.

The Getty Conservation Institute is a collaborator on the Herculaneum Project for which Gionata Rizzi has worked since 2002 as the architect responsible for developing pilot projects and model designs. He talked about the difficulties involved in preserving and conserving such a large project while maintaining its ambience.

Of course, we all know that Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, and until the 1700s the town of Herculaneum lay protected under tons of volcanic material some 50 feet high. After a couple of centuries of excavation at least one third of Herculaneum now lies exposed to the elements. Structures, paintings, and mosaics that had survived pretty much intact are now being destroyed by the sun and rain and oxidation.

Over the years various contraptions were devised to build covers and roofs to protect the excavation, some of which were very ugly and detracted from the sense of place. The photo above shows one of Rizzi's solutions to provide a roof while maintaining some idea of what the original may have looked like.

Evidently this was Rizzi's first visit to the Getty Villa. He got some laughs (at least from me) by talking about what it was like to leave the ancient Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum and walk into the working replica, which is what the Getty Villa is. He said it was difficult to walk on the marble floor which is an exact copy of the ancient version, which, of course, cannot be walked on. I have been to the Getty Villa so many times (since it first opened in the 1970s) that I definitely take it for granted and no longer even think about what it represents. I should pay more intention to the building itself.

You will be happy to know (I hope) that I didn't die from attending the lecture. And I am certainly glad that I made the effort. Pompeii gets the lion's share of attention but Herculaneum is equally important in our understanding of life in the Roman Empire during that period, and I look forward to learning more about it.

After the lecture we stopped by to see the ongoing exhibit Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity which is a wonderful display of over 180 ancient glass objects from the collection of Erwin Oppenländer and the Getty. About two years ago I took a twelve-week class at the Villa through UCLA Extension. One of my presentations for the class was on ancient glass, specifically Flask in the Shape of a Head (oh, note to the Getty webmaster, this has been bugging me for over a year now, the word is FLASK with a "K," not FLASH with an "H.") I was happy to see my flask is part of the exhibit. Sometimes research for a class can be useful and ever since putting together that presentation I have been fascinated by ancient glass. It's a nice adjunct to my obsession with mosaics!

(Photo: View of the multi-story House of the Telephus Relief with a timber roofing solution. Photo copyright The J. Paul Getty Trust)