Inspired by the Welsh poet Henry Vaughan’s text Silex Scintillans, Cy Twombly created three remarkably large-scale works on paper, of the same title, more than three centuries later. In its signature juxtaposition of haphazard handwriting, bold gestural ferocity and expressive painterly language, Silex Scintillans epitomises Twombly’s unique formal vocabulary. Before the work goes under the hammer in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 18 May, watch the video to view the painting while listening to Henry Vaughan’s poem The Storm.