Hero and Leander (Christopher Marlowe)

Canvas, oil.

Private collection.

Hero and Leander are the heroes of an ancient myth in which the lover of the beautiful priestess dies in the waves of the raging sea. Based on this myth, English Renaissance poet Christopher Marlowe wrote an erotic poem that inspired Twombly to create four paintings on this theme. The artist expressed the plot and emotional stress of the work with the help of expressive strokes and stains of paint filling the entire surface of the canvas. In its upper part, you can see the storm waves that took the life of the young swimmer, and the reddish-pink stains in the foreground symbolize death and the pain of loss.