Arnaldo Pomodoro, the Italian sculptor and creator of the bronze sphere on Trinity College Dublin’s campus, died at his home in Milan on Sunday, one day before his 99th birthday.
The landmark bronze sculpture on the podium outside the Eavan Boland Library (formerly the Berkeley Library) has been there since the 1980s. Colloquially known as The Pomodoro, its correct name is the Sfera con Sfera, meaning Sphere within a Sphere, and its rotating feature was discovered by many college students down the years.
Pomodoro’s death was announced by his niece Carlotta Montebello, who is director general of Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Pomodoro was born in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna on June 23rd, 1926. He trained as an engineer and goldsmith and was a self-taught artist.
Family fallouts: ‘I can’t describe the heartache of not having a relationship with my sister’
Zach Bryan in Dublin review: Gen Z’s Garth Brooks puts on a charming – and lengthy – show
How the death of an ‘old boy from Ireland’ in London-Irish suburb sparked a misguided viral appeal
As an Irish person in Australia there is one question I’m always asked
In later years, he became known as Il Maestro among his colleagues.
Pomodoro was one of Italy’s most prominent contemporary artists, specialising in monumental spheres, cones, columns and cubes in polished bronze. Their smooth exteriors split open to reveal interiors that were corroded, torn or simply hollowed out. His work can be seen across the world, including in his native Italy; the Vatican; the United Nations; the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and at the Unesco headquarters in Paris.
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said on X that Pomodoro had “sculpted Italy’s soul”. He also won a series of high-profile prizes such as the International Prize for Sculpture at the São Paulo Biennale in 1963, the National Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and the International Prize for Sculpture from the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1967.
Pomodoro was conferred with an honorary degree at Trinity College in 1992.
Trinity is also home to more of his artworks, including a series of nine prints at the school of genetics; a group of works at Tallaght University Hospital and a sculpture in St James’s Hospital.
Catherine Giltrap, curator and head of Trinity’s University Art Collections, expressed her sympathy to Pomodoro’s colleagues and family, and said the college plans to continue with preparations to commemorate 100 years since his birth in 2026.
The Sfera con Sfera, she said, “quickly became the embodiment of the modern era and a significant outward expression of the vitality of the connections between the historic and the contemporary at our university”.
She described it as a “privilege” to have Pomodoro’s “immense creative spirit woven into our historic and contemporary campuses through his artworks”.
“Many generations have been, and will continue to be, enriched and inspired by his creative presence in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin.”
