---

The years 1970-71 were a very prolific period in
which Cy Twombly, influenced by Leonardo da Vinci´s
Deluge drawings, created his iconic style: scribbled,
calligraphic, and graffiti-like works on solid fields. In
the late Kirk Varnedoe´s words, this-most minimal-
phase of Twombly´s oeuvre is characterized by a
"nervous, obsessed energy, yet its trance-like mono -
tony also opens out into a sense of serene, oceanic
dissolution, in a nebular cloud of great depth and infinite
complexity". His drawings of this phase featured
in Vol. V of his Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings include,
among others, acclaimed extensive series such as
Roman Notes, Study for Treatise on the Veil, and
Beyond (A System of Passing).

---

Nicola Del Roscio, born in Rome in 1944, was Twombly´s long-time assistant. The editor of the present Catalogue Raisonné, he is president of the Cy Twombly Foundation (New York/Rome) and the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio (Gaeta).

---