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Robert Rauschenberg, contact sheet showing portraits of Cy Twombly, 1952

Related to Cy + Roman Steps (I–V), 1952, printed ca. 1997

Robert Rauschenberg, contact sheet showing portraits of Cy Twombly, 1952

Related to Cy + Roman Steps (I–V), 1952, printed ca. 1997

Robert Rauschenberg, contact sheet showing portraits of Cy Twombly, 1952, printed ca. 1980. Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Research Material
Curatorial Document

This contact sheet includes six photographs that Rauschenberg took of Cy Twombly on the steps of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli, along with photos of Twombly and various relics at sites on Rome’s Capitoline Hill. Rauschenberg selected only five of the six photographs from the steps for inclusion in Cy + Roman Steps (I–V); the central image from the top row was dropped. The sculptural fragments seen in the bottom two rows of images are pieces of the Colossus of Constantine that Rauschenberg photographed at the Pallazo dei Conservatori. In one shot, Twombly appears in the same clothes seen in the Cy + Roman Steps (I–V) sequence, suggesting that all of these photos were taken on the same day as the two explored the city.

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