Coral

CORAL. - The working of coral for artistic uses was characteristic of the peoples of the Mediterranean basin from the most ancient times. Although there are not sufficient data to establish where it first appeared, it can nevertheless be observed, at least from literary references, that it was practiced in Greece in the Alexandrian era, and in Italy during the indigenous civilizations and in the Roman period (some finds near Bologna, at Arna, in Campania and in Rome itself are proof of this).

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance not much to use it, since there is no surviving trace in the excavations and in the evidence of the sources. In the Baroque age, however, adapting with its peculiar decorative possibilities to the requirements of the prevailing taste, c. was widely used, and especially in the so-called minor arts.

Particular mention is deserved by the school of Trapani, which produced works of undoubted interest such as the rich altar frontals, crucifixes, reliquaries, monstrances, chalices and Baroque copes, finely decorated in c., which are preserved in the Pepoli Museum of that city, in the National Museum of Palermo and at Monreale. Recent has been the boost given to the craft schools of Torre del Greco (Naples) for the production of works in c., both for religious objects and for the decoration of goldsmith work. See plates XXI-XXII.

Giovanni Carandente