Cy Twombly’s 2001 work Lepanto is a painting in twelve parts; the work depicts a 16th century naval battle between the European forces under Venetian leadership against the Ottoman invasion. The piece was exhibited in 2002 at Gagosian, and the press release states “The glorious sequence of panels is to be absorbed as a single image, a panoramic portrayal of war on a heroic scale where the viewer stands in the midst of the battle through to the destruction by fire of the Turkish fleet”. Of course, the battle of Lepanto is the subject of paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, and Titian. Turner’s scenes of naval battles are also well known. In many of Twombly’s paintings he’s working in the idiom of pure abstraction or is engaged in process painting; his versatility is marvelous. In recent works, Twombly has painted flowers (which may be the most shocking subject to art worldlings). 
Here are a couple TateShots in which the Tate’s Director, Nicholas Serota takes a look behind the scenes at a Twombly exhibit, and John Squire (British artist and ex-Stone Roses guitarist) describes some of Twombly’s works.
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Just as Laura Cumming describes in her review, what more are these works than a poem. It holds the same aspects as a poem would. Cy Twombly articulates his interpretation of the landscapes through thought and visualizations. Yet like a poem it still leaves you with a sense of questioning as to really understanding what he is trying to stress and just like any other great piece you ponder his meaning and thoughts.