Fifty Days at Iliam

Gallery 284, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor (Gray Charitable Trust Gallery I)

Main Building

Fifty Days at Iliam

1978

Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011)

In the summer of 1977, Cy Twombly began working on a "painting in ten parts" based on Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad. Completed in 1978 and collectively titled Fifty Days at Iliam, the works evoke incidents from Homer's epic poem in Twombly's characteristic synthesis of words and images. The ten large canvases follow one another much like a developing narrative. They are ordered as follows: Shield of Achilles; Heroes of the Achaeans; Vengeance of Achilles; Achaeans in Battle; The Fire that Consumes All Before It; Shades of Achilles, Patroclus, and Hector; House of Priam; Ilians in Battle; Shades of Eternal Night; Heroes of the Ilians.

Gallery 284, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor (Gray Charitable Trust Gallery I)

Object Details

Title:

Fifty Days at Iliam

Date:

1978

Artist:

Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011)

Medium:

In ten parts: oil, oil crayon, and graphite on canvas

Dimensions:

See individual object records for dimensions.

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Gift (by exchange) of Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White, 1989

Accession Number:

1989-90-1--10

Geography:

Made in Italy, Europe

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Gallery 284, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor (Gray Charitable Trust Gallery I)

Main Building

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