Quattro Stagion. Primavera (1993-1995) is one of the four paintings of Twombly’s monumental series that depicts the four seasons. The subject of four seasons, which represent the natural cycle of life, is a recurring theme from the Classical Era and the Renaissance. In this respect, the artist continues his engagement with the past, creating unique, contemporary interpretations of traditional motifs. The series is subtitled A Painting in Four Parts, as each season was represented in a distinctive manner. It also reflects the artist’s preoccupation with light, a key theme in his work throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Twombly worked on the series for two years. It was conceived in 1993 at his studio in Bassano in Teverina (a small municipality north of Rome) and later completed at his home in Gaeta on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Gaeta, a port city in central Italy had a very different atmosphere than Bassano. The environment was much lighter and brighter, and the artworks painted in Gaeta, such as Summer Madness (1990) have a vibrant and luminous quality.

Primavera, the panel dedicated to spring, is a dramatic painting that captures the exhilarating and vigorous nature of the season. When painting Primavera, the artist had Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in mind - the dramatic and sharp quality of the musical composition influenced Twombly’s bold choice of color. The artist creates a column of red slashes of paint with touches of yellow, and these culminate at the top of the painting where the artist, with splashes of pink and purple created a bouquet-like shape. Also, the prominent use of white captures the brightness that can be associated with the Mediterranean light. In the process of creating Primavera, the artist first prepared the canvas by painting a layer of cream-colored gesso. Afterwards he pinned the canvas to the wall and began applying the individual colors, which would then drip down in vertical lines. The main form on the canvas is a column of red vertical slashes. These shapes, which recur in Twombly’s paintings since 1992, usually signify boats with oars. The boat motif was possibly inspired by traditional Egyptian rowing boats and archetypal representations of boats on Egyptian tombs and Greek vases. Some suggest that the Egyptian rowing boats symbolize the journey through the underworld in the Book of the Dead. According to this interpretation, the boats symbolize a new beginning, which is similar to the concept of rebirth spring symbolizes.

In the background the artist wrote in pencil several fragments of different poetical texts, which speak about happy and overwhelming emotions. The text corresponds with the overall atmosphere of the painting, which portrays the coming of spring in a celebratory and spirited way. The use of text is one of the most intriguing features of Twombly’s work. Stylistically, Twombly was inspired by graffiti as early as the 1950s, and he often combined words, text and poetry in his paintings. Specifically, in this series, the summer panel Estate incorporates verses by the Greek poet, George Seferis. Today, all four canvases are part of the collection of the Tate Modern in London. Tate’s version is the second of two cycles; the first is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.