- Published: September 15, 2022
- Updated: September 15, 2022
- University / College: Art Center College of Design
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 5
I visited the Getty Vila which is located in Malibu, California. I mainly focused on the Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville: November 19, 2014–August 17, 2015. The piece of art that I viewed is a plaque, rectangular in shape and it is fixed on the wall. One thing that attracted me is that this plaque is made of silver and is about two meters long and about one meter tall. There are three images of people depicted in this plaque and the woman is on the center while a child is standing in a more like yawning position is on the left of the woman. To her right is an image of the man who seems to be placing something in the bowel held by the woman in her left hand. This woman is naked at the top and she is standing in an attractive stance. Her hair is plaited and her naked chest exposing her breasts is emblazoned with a necklace showing flowers.
In the left corner of the plaque, it can also be seen that there are different ornaments placed on what looks like a round table. The vessels are of different shapes and they seem to represent different types of treasure. Upon closer analysis of the plaque, it can be seen that it is designed from an outdoor setting. It seems there is a large tree branch stretching from the upper left corner of the plaque through to the right. Again, I noticed that the child depicted in the portrait is holding a ball in his left hand. He is also standing on a rectangular box probably used to store different types of wealth. The bowel held by the women in her left hand is used to collect different types of treasure which will be stored in a safe place later on.
To a larger extent, I believe this piece of art was superbly designed. During the ancient period, silver was used to design different types of treasure. This precious mineral was smelted and designed into different shapes depicting different types of artifacts. Even up to date, I believe that silver is still regarded as one of the most precious minerals found across the globe. It symbolizes wealth and the more silver one had in procession, the wealthier they are considered. In my own opinion, I think this piece of art is authentic in that even up to date, silver is still used to measure the level of wealth possessed by a certain individual or group. This plaque seemed to have been developed during ancient period when there were still little technological developments that could be used to smelt this mineral. It seems that the people who lived during this period were technologically advanced such that they can smelt silver using traditional means. During the contemporary period, it can be seen that furnaces are instead used to perform the same process of smelting hard mineral ores like silver. Overall, I believe that the whole image depicted in the plaque is a representation of wealth. It was also superbly designed and is very attractive.