On April 15, 2019, an accidental fire ravaged the 850-year-old cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. In recognition of this historic event and its aftermath, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the history and art of this architectural and religious icon. Paintings, photographs, prints, and rare books elucidate the importance of the cathedral in European art history from its construction in the Middle Ages to its restoration in the mid-1800s, including its central place in Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Curated by Anne-Lise Desmas.
The Getty Villa is modeled on the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, the ancient villa was rediscovered and explored by subterranean tunnels in the 1750s and '60s again in the 1990s and early 2000s. It has yielded spectacular colored marble and mosaic floors, frescoed walls, a large collection of bronze and marble statuary, and a library of more than a thousand papyrus scrolls. This exhibition presents rare original artifacts and traces attempts to unroll and decipher the carbonized papyri.