Shadows
Today, standing in the Getty Villa, I had a weird feeling of shifting shadows.
The Getty Villa is fashioned after a Roman villa in Pompeii. They took the "foot print" of the excavated ruins and used it as the start to the building, adding other characteristics typical to Roman era buildings. Another portion of the museum is made to look like it has been excavated... cement has been molded to mimic the petrified wood found in Pompeii.
A year and a half ago I stood in Pompeii, standing in the atrium of an excavated Roman villa. I studied the eerie stone-that-was-wood, and squinted at the barely discernible original art on the walls and floor.
And today, as I remembered that place, I wondered whether that was the shadow or if what I looked at today was the shadow.
But as I stood, marveling at the beauty of the gleaming Roman columns, with the butterflies flitting from plant to fountain and back, I couldn't help but cast one calculating glance at the mountain shadowing the villa.
The Getty Villa is fashioned after a Roman villa in Pompeii. They took the "foot print" of the excavated ruins and used it as the start to the building, adding other characteristics typical to Roman era buildings. Another portion of the museum is made to look like it has been excavated... cement has been molded to mimic the petrified wood found in Pompeii.
A year and a half ago I stood in Pompeii, standing in the atrium of an excavated Roman villa. I studied the eerie stone-that-was-wood, and squinted at the barely discernible original art on the walls and floor.
And today, as I remembered that place, I wondered whether that was the shadow or if what I looked at today was the shadow.
But as I stood, marveling at the beauty of the gleaming Roman columns, with the butterflies flitting from plant to fountain and back, I couldn't help but cast one calculating glance at the mountain shadowing the villa.
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