gardening

Posted in Gardens and Architecture

For California Gardeners, Winter Is the New Summer

European honeybee on tidy tips in the Central Garden

Winter, the sere season? Not in California, where the cool months are our lushest, our most verdant of all. More»

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Posted in Art, Gardens and Architecture, Manuscripts and Books, Voices

Getty Voices: Renaissance Gardens

bourdichon_featured

A journey through Renaissance gardens and their paradoxes: natural and artificial, sin and salvation, virtue and vice. More»

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gardens and Architecture, Getty Center

Pollarding the Getty Knuckle Trees

sycamore tree on restaurant plaza
Pruned sycamore tree branches "like jacks made of wood"

What is this strange tree, and why does it look this way? Pollarding explored and explained. More»

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Posted in Gardens and Architecture, Getty Villa

Seeing the Villa Gardens in a Different Light

The East Garden at the Getty Villa at dusk

Long evenings and bright sun are taking the place of early dusks and sprinkling rains: spring is here. At the Getty Villa, the light is brilliant even at closing time for a final stroll around the gardens, framing the museum… More»

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Posted in Gardens and Architecture, Getty Center

The Moment of Alliums

alliums_1

It is the week of return—of the vernal equinox, and of the shooting stars—the blue blue-violet alliums in Robert Irwin’s Central Garden at the Getty Center. We’ve been waiting. In late-ish February, green shoots began rocketing from the rich dark… More»

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Posted in Gardens and Architecture, Getty Center

Winter in the Central Garden

Foliage of Eschscholzia california in the rain in the Central Garden at the Getty Center

The Getty’s outdoor spaces are never more beautiful than in the colder months. More»

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Posted in Ancient World, Antiquities, Gardens and Architecture, Getty Villa

Archaeologist Kathryn Gleason on Roman Gardens

The Outer Peristyle at the Getty Villa. © 2005 Richard Ross with the courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust

Kathryn Gleason is an expert on Roman gardens and a pioneer in the field of garden archaeology, an exciting and relatively new field. In advance of her lecture on Roman gardens this Saturday at the Getty Villa, she spoke to… More»

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Posted in Gardens and Architecture, Getty Center

You Asked, We Answered: The Mystery Plant Is…

Spanish flag in the Central Garden at the Getty Center - close-up of foliage

“What’s that?” is a common question in the Central Garden, a place full of exotic and curious plants. “James Cameron must have come here when he was dreaming up Avatar,” I recently overheard a visitor say while pointing to some… More»

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Posted in Gardens and Architecture, Getty Villa

Exploring the Herb Garden at the Getty Villa

Fruit in the Herb Garden at the Getty Villa

A beautiful day and the blooming of spring brought me out of my stuffy cubicle and into the Herb Garden at the Getty Villa. As the sun streamed onto my shoulders, I inhaled the fresh sent of mixed herbs and… More»

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gardens and Architecture, Getty Center

Ladybugs in the Central Garden

Releasing ladybugs on the azaleas at the Getty Center

Each year we release ladybugs on the jacaranda trees and azaleas to eat aphids during the spring months. We buy them from insectaries that sell them by the thousands. We put water on the foliage before releasing them. When they… More»

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      dominusvenustas:

      Andrea del SartoVarious studies, c.1520’s

      Son of a tailor (sarto). Andrea became one of the best loved artists of Florence. Vasari had good things to say about him.

      …Andrea del Sarto, in whose single person Nature and art showed all that painting can achieve by means of drawing, colouring and invention: and indeed if Andrea had possessed a little more boldness and daring of spirit, to match his very profound judgement and talent as a painter, he would, there is no doubt at all, have been without equal. 

      Browning wrote poems about him:

      Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
      Or what’s a heaven for?

      His drawings are natural, graceful and sensitive, an excellent draughtsman.

      …and he was very much in love with his wife… (something we don’t often hear about Renaissance artists!)

      Our curator Julian Brooks is in Florence now researching del Sarto for an exhibition in 2015.


      05/22/13

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