Sphere Within a Sphere Vatican City – Arnaldo Pomodoro and the Braccio Nuovo

This photograph captures Sfera con Sfera (Sphere Within a Sphere), the monumental bronze sculpture by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro, standing at the centre of the Cortile della Pigna, or Pinecone Courtyard, at the Vatican Museums in Vatican City. The four-metre-diameter sculpture provides a dramatic contemporary focal point against the restrained Neoclassical architecture of the Braccio Nuovo, the New Wing of the Chiaramonti Museum. The combination of polished bronze, historic masonry, formal landscaping, cobbled paving and a dramatic sky creates a striking architectural composition in which contemporary sculpture is placed directly within one of the Vatican’s historic museum courtyards. The Vatican Museums describe Pomodoro’s sphere as an iconic work of their contemporary art collection and confirm that it was donated by the artist on 6 March 1990.

The sculpture itself is a powerful study in contrasts. From a distance, its outer form appears to be an almost perfectly formed bronze sphere, highly polished so that the surrounding sky, buildings and visitors are reflected across its surface. Closer inspection reveals extensive fractures and openings through which a complex internal structure of gears, mechanical forms and geometric elements becomes visible. The Vatican’s documentation describes the work as a large sphere containing a smaller sphere, with the fissured exterior revealing a dark and complicated interior. The contrast between the smooth external surface and the rough mechanical interior is fundamental to the work’s visual identity. The sculpture is approximately four metres in diameter and is constructed in bronze.

The artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro, was one of Italy’s most important modern sculptors, and the Sphere Within a Sphere works became among his best-known creations. The Vatican version is particularly significant because it was conceived specifically for the Museums and positioned within the Cortile della Pigna. In a 2025 tribute to Pomodoro, Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta described the sculpture as an iconic work of the Vatican Museums and noted its position between the Braccio Nuovo and the monumental niche associated with the ancient Vatican pinecone.

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