Cy Twombly
This painting is one of twelve paintings depicting the battle of Lepanto just off the Southwest coast of Greece. Four paintings with a white background show in red paint the outlines of boats from above while the other eight show side-on views of the boats against the background of a turquoise sea. Set out in a semi-circle in their own room in the Museum Brandhorst in Munich they form a beautiful large scale work of art. The interplay of the turquoise with the organgy-red and yellow, sometimes also black, pink and dark blue, form a stunning wall of colour. Meanwhile the mix of brush strokes, dabs and what almost looks like finger painting mixed with running paint gives a rich variety of form and texture. From a distance, the boats are not always recognisable in all the paintings and could just as well be flowers, water lilies or simply something abstract.
In reality, the battle of Lepanto in October 1571 marked the climax of the age of galley warfare in the Mediterranean Sea: an alliance of Venetian, Spanish and Papal boats attacking (and defeating) the Ottoman fleet in order to recapture Cyprus; a brutal battle playing out over a single day which involved around 120,000 people, over 20,000 of whom were killed – supposedly turning the sea blood red. And so the colours and paint take on a new significance. As the red and yellow increase across the series, so do the burning boats, while the blood of lives lost streams down more and more of the canvasses. How can something so brutal and ultimately pointless (the Venetians ceded Cyprus again two years later) give rise to something as stunning and breathtaking as this series of paintings? Although traces of the brutality undoubtably remain, is it right to show something as dreadful as a battle in which thousands die in such a grand and beautiful display?
Or should we be glad that something as horrific as this battle has at least given rise to great art – not only by this artist, but many others over the centuries, too? Should we be thankful that art such as this can draw us in and remind us of a deadly battle, giving us the chance to remember the many people who were forced into it? Allowing us to show respect and dignity to the injured and dead by offering them our time and thoughts and empathy? Is this an opportunity for us to remember the dead not only from this battle, but from others, too? To reflect on the places today where soldiers are sent to their deaths by leaders fighting vanity wars?
The abstraction of the battle in these paintings means that we cannot distinguish between the two different sides – all we see is the presence of indiscriminate brutality and suffering. Has God abandoned the world, giving free rein to the forces of evil? Surely, not! The strange beauty of the scene reminds us that God is present after all: for God as love suffers in and with everyone caught up in such inhumanity. Is that not what the death of Jesus on the cross reveals?
Cy Twombly’s Lepanto Cycle at the Museum Brandhorst
The following video shows the full Lepanto cycle in its purpose built room in the Museum Brandhorst. To see a (slightly rough automated) translation of the the German narration, you can switch on subtitles and then click on the little gear icon for the Settings. Select Subtitles/CC, then Auto-translate and then the language of your choice.
Leave a Reply