‘”The exhibition on the crosses (The cross from pre-history to present times), organised by the sculptor Nicola Sebastio, is a fascinating occasion to know the partial, but still historically and artistically interesting, iconographic itinerary of the cross and of crucifixion, throughout the centuries. After reading this ‘bible of the poor’, the visitor starts to realise how Christ chose a cosmic symbol, as the instrument for his death. We find it also in times and civilisations which came before its first appearance in Palestine, but already with a value of universal sacredness which leads us to meditate deeply on the impact that this instrument of disgrace later had on pre and post Christian civilisations. Nicola Sebastio does not only display this documentation on the Cross in the first centuries of our faith and in the times before Christ, but he also presents some of his recent personal works. In this direct comparison can we understand his Christian inspiration, which uses an exceptional iconographic culture; we can also see how very ancient roots can give birth to branches of truly original creations, felt in their deep affinity with modern sensitiveness. … one could not conclude a discourse on the sculpture by Nicola Se-bastio without mentioning those more or less evident, defined or hidden, symbolic values which are part of his work and which are often an occasion, or better the origin, of some of his beautiful inventions; behind these symbols and their double meaning, religious and cosmological together, one can always and only feel the presence of the Holy Scriptures, of the books of Prophets, that is of the revealed Word. Let us take for instance that beautiful cross, surrounded by flames and supported by a human figure (St. Sergio), which can be found against one of the walls of St. Sergio House in Settignano, Italy. In its centre we find an image of a will of love and revelation which takes fire and which recalls us to its cosmic image, that of the sun. But beyond all this lies the deep truth of faith revealing itself; faith which at Patmos dictated the Apocalypse “. Carlo Betocchi’