Untitled Document The theme of the ancient world that permeates the atmosphere of the Getty Villa is carried into the subject of one of the museum’s first grand re-opening exhibits. Antiquity & Photography: Ancient Mediterranean Sites examines the influence of photographs on shaping opinions about ancient cities in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt from the 1840s to 1890s.



Since the birth of the medium in 1839, photographers have traveled throughout these regions in hopes of "creating vivid souvenirs of sights too magnificent to express in words." The results captured range from images of ancient battlegrounds and fallen empires to pastoral scenes and snippets of citizens’ daily lives.



Drawing primarily from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute, the pieces in this exhibition "let us see faraway places and experience the rediscovery of ancient sites firsthand. They reveal valuable information about the state of preservation of the monuments over a century ago."



Haven’t you ever longed to dig your toes into the soil where a legendary temple once stood? Even if you can’t afford a plane ticket to Greece, you can still be transported to a different time and era through the images of this magnificent exhibit.



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