This woman is still beautiful and self-assured, 2,000 years after her portrait was painted. More»
Actor and director Peter Weller is known for his many film and television roles, most famously Robocop in Paul Verhoeven’s campy classic. However, Weller’s interests go far beyond the camera—he is a scholar of Italian Renaissance art who is completing… More»
The new exhibition Brush & Shutter: Early Photography in China uses photographs, along with a few paintings and other artistic media, to tell a largely unknown story about China. In the second half of the 19th century, when China was… More»
As the Getty Museum’s senior curator of paintings, I feel it is incumbent on me to walk through the galleries almost every day, speaking with the security officers and other staff and watching how the public looks at the collections…. More»
During a tour of the new exhibition The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme, curator Mary Morton stopped in front of Gérôme’s Snake Charmer and asked the audience, “What do you see?” Murmurs spread through the crowd. One brave little girl… More»
On a recent Saturday night, nearly 20 visitors tried to make sense of a huge, mysterious painting in the Getty Center’s Flemish gallery. Mysterious, because our leader, Lilit Sadoyan, had covered up the painting’s accompanying wall text. We were forced… More»
Eid al-Fitr signals the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month where the pillar of fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset. In fact, during this “sugar feast,” it is forbidden to fast!
The Mosque and Madrasa Complex of Sultan Hassan undoubtedly dominated the cityscape of medieval Cairo. What would festivities have looked like back then?
Kairo, Mosque Sultan Hassan, photolithograph, Photo Zürich, 1906. J. Paul Getty Museum.