Sphere Within a Sphere

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Sphere Within a Sphere by Arnaldo Pomodoro

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In the centre of the Vatican's Cortile della Pigna (Courtyard of the Pinecone), stands a large, bronze sculpture: the Sfera con sfera (Sphere Within a Sphere), the work of the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926-). 

The striking sculpture takes the form of a fractured orb, inside of which is a second fractured orb. The interiors of both orbs seem to imitate the gears and cogwheels of a complex machine. Sfera con sfera, one of a series of sculptures on a similar theme that Pomodoro started to produce in the early 1960s, symbolises the complexity and fragility of the modern world.  

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Courtyard of the Pinecone