Review: 'Sicily' at Getty Villa looms larger than life

The new antiquities exhibition at the Getty Villa is an impressive overview of a flourishing civilization, with three major sculptures a must-see.

April 10, 2013|By Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic
  • A gold offering dish with acorn pattern from 325-275 BC.
A gold offering dish with acorn pattern from 325-275 BC. (J. Paul Getty Museum )

There are at least three great reasons to see "Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome," the newly opened antiquities exhibition at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. A major sculpture anchors each of the show's three rooms, and together they tell an accelerating story of artistic and social power on the ancient Mediterranean island.


"Sicily" exhibition: In the April 10 Calendar section, a review of the Getty Villa's "Sicily" exhibition misspelled the name of the artist Kimon as Kiron. —


PHOTOS: Arts and culture by The Times

This figure bristles with the potential for imminent action, unlike the everlasting rigidity of ancient Egyptian sculpture from which the kouros format probably derives. In statuary meant to adorn a dead man's tomb, that potential is an oddly comforting development.

The brilliant sculpture of a charioteer, made less than 25 years later, is the exhibition's knockout work. He's also missing arms (and feet), but you don't need full limbs to see what a beaming, gallant showoff the unknown artist has created.

The figure stands with his body slightly twisting in space, as if turning to wave. Like any victor acknowledging the applauding throng from the podium, it's a gesture you've seen on such figures as Ryan Lochte at London's Olympics and the latest starlet negotiating the Oscars or Emmys red carpet. His weight is carried on the pivoting left leg, jaunty hip thrust out to receive his hand and grinning head turned slightly to the side.


The "Mozia Charioteer," named after the little island along the western coast of Sicily where it was found, is an even bigger prize. The bodily naturalism of its complex pose pulls a viewer all the way around the figure for a 360-degree view. That's one reason why it is regarded among the finest ancient Greek sculptures in the round to have survived.

Incidentally, I highly recommend shifting your own body into position to mirror the sculpture's pose as you're examining it. You might feel foolish doing it in the gallery, but you'll walk away having learned a lot.

FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview

One thing you'll discover is the jaw-dropping delicacy of the carving. The skin of the kouros torso reveals the musculature moving underneath, but the charioteer's sculptor added yet another layer — a pleated tunic, which miraculously reveals the taut skin beneath and finally the underlying bodily structure. It's as if you've been given X-ray vision.

The layered illusion multiplies at the back, where the pleated cloth pulls gently across the turning torso. At the hip it subtly bunches beneath the athlete's firm fingertips (although the charioteer's arms are missing, his hand remains attached to the torso.). Small moments such as these are marvels of what could be called kinesthetic vision, in which a perception of slight but revealing physical strain appears.


Given the deity's outrageous sexual exhibitionism, that's no surprise.

Los Angeles Times Articles