Ancient Mesopotamia, centered in present-day Iraq, occupies a unique place in the history of human culture. It is there, around 3400–3000 BC, that all the key elements of urban civilization first ...

We invite you to discover this celebrated ancient trading center, venerated for its magnificent monuments and multiculturalism. Read a first-person account, dive into its remarkable history, or ...

This information comes from the Museum's collection database, and in some cases is incomplete or awaiting refinement. Researching the collection is a core component of our work, and we continue to ...

This detailed book is a “how-to” guide to building controlled vocabulary tools, cataloging and indexing cultural materials with terms and names from controlled vocabularies, and using vocabularies in ...

The earliest photographs—often associated with small, faded, sepia-toned images—may seem to belong to a bygone era, but many of the conventions established during photography’s earliest years persist ...

Even during his lifetime, Juan de Valdés Leal became known for somber, if not macabre, subjects painted in a dramatic style. Commissions throughout his life included altarpieces, retables, vanitas ...

PDF editions of selected books, reports and guidelines published by the Getty Conservation Institute.

Joseph Mallord William Turner's father, a barber and wigmaker, realized his son's artistic talents early, asserting that "my son is going to be a painter." Before enrolling in the Royal Academy, ...

Contemporary Chinese photography has received increasing attention both within China and beyond; however, the origin of photography in China is not fully understood. Brush & Shutter: Early Photography ...

Alfredo Boulton is considered one of the most important champions of modern art in Venezuela and a key intellectual of 20th-century modernism. He was a pioneer of photography, an art critic, a ...

The archive comprises material related to Ed Ruscha's photographic documentation of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares: Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard, as well as the projects that ...

We are launching an exciting multi-year project to update the technical infrastructure of the Getty Vocabularies. As part of this work, we are retiring some service offerings, starting with the ...