“The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)” is the series created by CY Twombly, an American calligraphic-style graffiti painter (born 1928) from Lexington, Virginia in the year 1993-94. Twombly studied art in Boston, New York, and at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. As the name suggests, the painting is made up of four parts, representing “Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons)”. Twombly used synthetic polymer paint, oil, house paint, pencil, and crayon to create the four canvases. Of the four, the “Spring” canvas measures 10′ 3 1/8″ x 6′ 2 7/8″ (312.5 cm x 190 cm), “Summer” 10′ 3 3/4″ x 6′ 7 1/8″ (314.5 cm x 201 cm), “Fall” is 10′ 3 1/2″ x 6′ 2 3/4″ (313.7 x 189.9 cm) and “Winter” is 10′ 3 1/4″ x 6 ‘ 2 7/8″ (313 x 190.1 cm) in size.

In “The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)”, CY Twombly portrays the changing color of the rural landscape of the four seasons. The four-series painting also seems to build a resemblance to the human life cycle. “The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)” conveys the philosophy of ‘life goes on’. It seems to emphasize that everything that ends begins anew. That is, rebirth follows death, just as spring (rebirth) follows winter (death).

With different phases, the feeling is different. Where winter is cold and dying, spring evokes the happy expression of life with new fruits and flowers that bloom again, as excellently reflected in Botticelli’s Primavera (Italian word for spring) forest. In “The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)”, CY Twombly also honed the feel with the use of his brilliant color scheme that hits the right connotations, associated with each of the four canvases De Indeed, the classic color palette has added the whole to “The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)”.

For “Spring,” Twombly used vibrant red curves, with bright yellow pops in them. The red curves resemble ancient Egyptian ships, which is common in several of Twombly’s creations. “Estate (summer)” turns into warm yellow, with predominant colors expressing the state of youth and pleasure. The use of white denotes love melting in crazy heat. “Autunno (autumn)” relates to the harvest season and the famous Bassano wine festival. Some layers of red and the phrase like “Your blood” imply the rise of Bacchus, the mythological god of wine. Finally, “Inverno (winter)” is the most scattered canvas among all the canvases of Twombly’s 4 seasons. In this artwork, words mysteriously disappear under the transparent white mist. A proficient combination of yellow and green creates the much-needed nuanced depth to reflect its deadly cool property.

One of CY Twombly’s bright sparks, “The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter (Quattro Stagioni)” is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.