Thursday at the Getty Center

I met my friend Paul at the Getty Center and we roamed through this beautiful art campus on top of Los Angeles.  We focused first on the current exhibit entitled "Power and Pathos:  Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World.

The exhibit description states that during the Hellenistic period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. until the establishment of the Roman Empire in 31 B.C., the medium of bronze drove artistic innovation.  Bronze has the ability to hold fine detail as seen in the dynamic compositions, nude bodies, and facial expressions.  Some of the works are new discoveries found in sunken ships or excavations in Pompeii and other sites.

Here are some of my favorites taken from the photos posted on the Getty Web site:

This is a poster hanging in the Getty Courtyard of "Portrait of Seuthes III,"  310-300 B.C., alabaster, glass, bronze, copper and calcite.

"Alexander The Great on Horseback," 100 to 1 B.C., bronze and silver

"Portrait of A Man," 300-200 B.C., bronze copper glass and stone.

Left:  "Victorious Athlete," 300-100 B.C.; Middle:  "Weary Hercules," 1-100 A.D.; Right:  "Seated Boxer, 'The Terme Boxer,'" 300-200 B.C., bronze and copper.

"Head of a God or Poet," 100-1 B.C., bronze.

Gallery view of "Head of Athelete, 200-100 B.C., Athlete, A.D. 1-90 A.D., Athlete, 100-1 B.C.

Left to Right:  Apollo, 120-100 B.C., Apollo, 100 B.C.-A.D. 79, Torso of a Youth, 200-100 B.C. 

\"Boy Removing a Thorn from His Foot, 'The Spinario," 50 B.C. Bronze and Copper.

"Seated Boxer, 'The Terme Boxer,'" detail. 300-200 B.C. Bronze and Copper.

"Herm of Dionysos," 200-100 B.C., Bronze, Copper and Stone.

After lunch we explored other treasures at the Getty Center including some new acquisitions. Here are my photos:

"Bust of Pope Paul V," 1621 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian, 1598-1680.  "This masterpiece was kept in the Villa Borghese in Rome until 1893 and then sold.  Its whereabouts have been unknown until its rediscover in late 2014.  

"The 'Piebald' Horse," about 1650-54 by Paulus Potter, Dutch, 1625-1654 oil on canvas.

"Astronomer by Candlelight," late 1650's by Gerrit Dou, Dutch, 1613-1675, oil on panel.  Dpi was Rembrandt's first student and later the leader of the group of painters in Leyden.

"Bibi-la-Puree," 1901 by Pablo Picasso, Spanish, 1881-1973, oil on cardboard.  "At once droll and disconcerting, the shabbily debonair character in this portrait arrests the viewer with a gaze whose manic intensity is equaled by Picasso's strident colors and aggressive brushwork."

"The Wounded Foot," 1909 by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Spanish, 1863-1923, oil on canvas.