Hero and Leander (To Christopher Marlowe) [Rome] 1985

Cy Twombly made this painting, *Hero and Leander (To Christopher Marlowe) [Rome]*, using paint in a wash of pale pinks and creams with bright, almost violent reds. Imagine Twombly in Rome, thinking about Marlowe’s poem, maybe even feeling it in the Roman air. What a process, right? A kind of back-and-forth—like a conversation between poet and painter, across time. There are these streaks of white that drip down, like tears or sea spray, or even just the way paint behaves, yielding to gravity. Twombly’s paintings often have a kind of rawness, where the paint is both delicate and forceful. You can sense him there, making marks, wiping them away, adding more. This piece is one of a series of paintings, sculptures and drawings reflecting on the tragic story of Hero and Leander - it's like he's wrestling with themes of love, loss, and the sea, all while riffing off Marlowe's words. The painting becomes a space where the past and present collide. It reminds us that artists are always in dialogue with one another, building on what came before.