Coral is a mesmerizing material: it is alive, it belongs to the sea and, just like everything that comes from water – like pearls, sea shells, and Venus, the goddess of Beauty and Love – it has something ancestral and magical. For centuries, coral was used to craft amulets able to protect their owners from evil, misfortune and fears, and it was even believed to help diminish physical pain.
Coral is usually divided into two main categories: dark-orange coral, known in Italian as carbonetto, and pink-diaphanous coral, known as squallo, which is more expensive. We should also mention black coral, which is used in jewelry-making as well, although it isn’t perhaps as popular as its red and orange cousins.
When we think of coral fishing and craftsmanship in Italy, our thoughts fly to Campania, to Torre del Greco, but Sicily has a vivid and rich coral tradition, too, especially in the city of Trapani. The first attestations of its fishing and crafting on the island date back to Arab times, when it was harvested especially in the waters around the Isole Egadi, just in front of Trapani.
The fortunes of Sicilian coral continued during Norman and Swabian domination (from the mid-11th to the end of the 13th century), as attested by Arabic geographer Al-Idrisi, who mentioned the quality of Trapani’s red coral in the 12th century. Documents dating from the end of the 14th century show that the Trapani’s red coral was the largest export of the city, along with sea salt and tuna.
It is, however, in the 16th century that coral craftsmanship reached its peak in the Sicilian city. Fishermen called corallini would sail off on their ligudelli, boats especially created for coral fishing, in May and would return in September. The crew always included a group of natanti, fishermen who would swim to reach and harvest the coral underwater.
Under the Bourbons, coral fishing and crafting were so important for the economy of the island that laws were promulgated to limit the access to local coral banks to foreign coral fishing boats: in other words, if you wanted to fish coral in Sicilian waters, you had to register at the port and permission wasn’t always granted.
When thinking of early coral craftsmanship in Sicily, the name coming to mind is that of Antonio Ciminello who, in the 16th century, created a special chisel, called bulino in Italian, that was to change the way coral was sculpted and engraved. Indeed, it is after Ciminello’s creation that coral craftsmanship truly flourished. We just need to think about the famous coral Presepe offered by the Senate of Palermo to Philip II, king of Spain, which counted some 80 characters and 120 animals. Or the Greek-inspired temple commissioned again by the Senate of Palermo and gifted to Pope Urban VIII in the mid-17th century.
However, things were to change for Trapani, because many of the families historically tied to the fishing and manufacturing of coral jewels in the city eventually moved away, trying to increase their fortunes by bringing the craft to other areas of the island: just to give you an idea, while there were more than thirty coral ateliers in Trapani in the 17th century, only eight remained in the 19th. Despite this, Trapani’s craftsmen remained on top of their game, especially because they specialized in producing gold and carved-stone jewelry, using techniques they had acquired from Jewish artisans.
The development of goldsmithing and precious and semi-precious stone carving was also influenced by spirituality, in particular, by the popularity of the Madonna di Trapani: her cult would bring hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims to the city who, more often than not, would leave with a memento of the Virgin, usually in the shape of a small coral statuette or a set of coral rosary beads.
Today, the coral tradition of Trapani remains alive, especially thanks to the ability its craftsmen had, through the centuries, to become fine goldsmiths and to develop a thriving high-jewelry tradition in the area.
The figure of the corallaio-orefice is typical of the city and remains pivotal in the local economy. In this context, we should mention one name in particular, Platimiro Fiorenza. The son of a corallaio-orefice in Trapani, Platimiro began working with coral, gold, and silver when he was only seven years old. Little by little, his work became recognizable and appreciated across the country, so much so that, as presented by Eleonora Monaco of Visit Italy, he received the 100 Eccellenze Italiane prize and was recognized as a Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere. Maestro Fiorenza is also the mind and hands behind the Sicilian entry for Fendi’s Hand in Hand project, an initiative where craftsmen from each region of Italy have been asked to create a version of Fendi’s iconic 1997 baguette bag, using their own craft. Platimiro created a lavish Fendi baguette in red leather, entirely covered in delicate silverwork and corals.
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