Now on view at the Getty Villa Museum, “Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville” and “Dangerous Perfection: Funerary Vases from Southern Italy” showcase a collection of artifacts that involved years of conservation and restoration utilizing the latest science and technology.
Discovered in different parts of the world, both exhibits examine the history of the works and the worlds in which they were used while underscoring the quality of the pieces and techniques used to make them.
“Ancient Luxury,” on view through Aug. 17, 2015, features agilt-silver statuettes and vessels accidentally discovered by a French farmer plowing his field near the village of Berthouville in rural Normandy in 1830.
Known as the Berthouville Treasure, the hoard was an ancient offering to the Gallo-Roman god Mercury. “They’re stunning and they’re products of great craftsmanship,” said Kenneth Lapatin, exhibition curator and associate curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “These objects will amaze people; you have to get up close and look at them.”
Following four years of conservation and research in the museum’s antiquities conservation department, the exhibition features a collection of ancient silver and offers new insights about ancient art, technology, religion and cultural interaction.
“Since 2010, this magnificent collection of silver objects has been undergoing extensive conservation and study…providing us a unique opportunity to examine the production of Roman luxury materials and seeing what this has to teach us about the art, culture and religion of Roman Gaul,” said Getty Director Timothy Potts. “Being able to display this dazzling hoard at the Getty Villa is a great privilege for us and our visitors.”
The cache — in the collection of the Cabinet des médailles (now the Department of Coins, Medals and Antiques) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France — is displayed in its entirety for the first time outside of Paris, together with gems, jewelry and other Roman luxury objects from the Cabinet’s royal collections.
While the treasure — consisting of about 90 silver objects weighing more than 50 pounds — was first discovered in 1830, it was not until 1861 and again in 1896 that the site was extensively surveyed and excavated, uncovering the foundations of a Gallo-Roman fanum, a square colonnaded precinct with two temples. One was dedicated to Mercury Canetonensis of Canetonum, while the other was devoted to his mother Maia or his consort Rosmerta.
“When we think about ancient art we tend to think about the things that survive best … big marble statues or ceramic pots because those are your durable materials,” Lapatin said. “But we don’t tend to think about the things that survive less well, like silver vessels, gold vessels, gem stones … things that were melted down or got lost.”
“Dangerous Perfection,” on view through May 11, 2015, showcases 13 Apulian vases unearthed in hundreds of fragments in the early 19th century that reflect how Greek myth was used to help understand death, explained David Saunders, curator of the exhibition and associate curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The exhibit also highlights the debate as to what extent ancient works should be restored.
“The work [of 19th-century restorer Raffaele Gargiulo] is so perfect you can’t distinguish between ancient and modern,” said Saunders.
Since 2008, conservators in the Getty’s antiquities conservation department have worked closely with their colleagues at the Antikensammlung Berlin, a classical art collection in Germany, to study and conserve the group of highly important Apulian vases dating to the 4th century B.C., Potts said.
“This exhibition represents the culmination of this collaboration, which has yielded a wealth of new information on the early 19th century restoration techniques, adding an important new reference point for the burgeoning study of the history of archaeological conservation up to the present day,” Potts said.
The exhibition reveals some methods used to attain this level of perfection and the challenges posed to conservators today. During the six-year collaborative project between the Getty Villa and the Antikensammlung, a variety of techniques were employed to illuminate the vessels’ history and inform the manner of treatment, which involved their disassembly, cleaning, and reconstruction.
“These are extraordinary objects,” Saunders said. “These are absolutely monumental vessels that you don’t get to see every day in L.A.”
The Getty Villa is located at 7985 PCH in Pacific Palisades.
