L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano C oral is a mes- merizing mate- rial: it is alive, i t b e l o n g s t o t h e s e a a n d , j u s t l i k e e v e r y t h i n g t h a t c o m e s f r o m w a t e r – l i k e p e a r l s , s e a s h e l l s , a n d Venus, the goddess of Beau- ty and Love – it has some- thing ancestral and magical. F o r c e n t u r i e s , c o r a l w a s used to craft amulets able to protect their owners from evil, misfortune and fears, and it was even believed to h e l p d i m i n i s h p h y s i c a l pain. Coral is usually divided into two main categories: dark-orange coral, known i n I t a l i a n a s c a r b o n e t t o , and pink-diaphanous coral, known as squallo, which is more expensive. We should a l s o m e n t i o n b l a c k coral, which is used in jew- e l r y - m a k i n g a s w e l l , although it isn't perhaps as p o p u l a r a s i t s r e d a n d orange cousins. When we think of coral fishing and craftsmanship in Italy, our thoughts fly to C a m p a n i a , t o T o r r e d e l Greco, but Sicily has a vivid and rich coral tradition, too, especially in the city of Tra- pani. The first attestations of its fishing and crafting on the island date back to Arab times, when it was harvest- ed especially in the waters around the Isole Egadi, just in front of Trapani. The fortunes of Sicilian coral continued during Nor- man and Swabian domina- tion (from the mid-11th to the end of the 13th centu- ry), 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, a l o n g w i t h s e a s a l t a n d tuna. It is, however, in the 16th century that coral crafts- manship 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 c r e w a l w a y s i n c l u d e d a group of natanti, fishermen who would swim to reach a n d h a r v e s t t h e c o r a l underwater. U n d e r t h e B o u r b o n s , coral fishing and crafting were so important for the economy of the island that laws were promulgated to l i m i t t h e a c c e s s t o l o c a l coral banks to foreign coral f i s h i n g b o a t s : i n o t h e r words, if you wanted to fish coral in Sicilian waters, you had to register at the port a n d p e r m i s s i o n w a s n ' t always granted. When thinking of early coral craftsmanship in Sici- l y , t h e n a m e c o m i n g t o mind is that of A n t o n i o Ciminello who, in the 16th century, created a special chisel, called bulino in Ital- ian, 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 t h i n k a b o u t t h e f a m o u s coral Presepe offered by the Senate of Palermo to P h i l i p I I , k i n g o f S p a i n , w h i c h c o u n t e d s o m e 8 0 characters and 120 animals. O r t h e G r e e k - i n s p i r e d t e m p l e c o m m i s s i o n e d a g a i n b y t h e S e n a t e o f Palermo and gifted to Pope Urban VIII in the mid-17th century. However, things were to change for Trapani, because many of the families histor- ically tied to the fishing and manufacturing of coral jew- e l s i n t h e c i t y e v e n t u a l l y m o v e d a w a y , t r y i n g t o increase their fortunes by bringing the craft to other areas of the island: just to g i v e y o u a n i d e a , w h i l e there were more than thirty coral ateliers in Trapani in the 17th century, only eight r e m a i n e d i n t h e 1 9 t h . D e s p i t e t h i s , T r a p a n i ' s craftsmen remained on top o f t h e i r g a m e , e s p e c i a l l y because they specialized in producing gold and carved- stone jewelry, using tech- niques they had acquired from Jewish artisans. The development of gold- smithing and precious and semi-precious stone carving was also influenced by spiri- tuality, in particular, by the popularity of the Madonna di Trapani: her cult would bring hundreds and hun- dreds of pilgrims to the city who, more often than not, would leave with a memen- to 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, e s p e c i a l l y t h a n k s t o t h e ability its craftsmen had, through the centuries, to become fine goldsmiths and to develop a thriving high- j e w e l r y t r a d i t i o n i n t h e area. The figure of the coral- laio-orefice is typical of the city and remains pivotal in the local economy. In this context, we should mention o n e n a m e i n p a r t i c u l a r , P l a t i m i r o F i o r e n z a . T h e s o n o f a corallaio-orefice in Tra- pani, Platimiro began work- ing with coral, gold, and sil- ver when he was only seven years old. Little by little, his work became recognizable and appreciated across the country, so much so that, as p r e s e n t e d b y E l e o n o r a Monaco of Visit Italy, he received the 100 Eccellenze Italiane prize and was rec- ognized as a Maestro d'Arte e Mestiere. Maestro Fioren- z a i s a l s o t h e m i n d a n d hands behind the Sicilian entry for Fendi's Hand in Hand project, an initia- tive where craftsmen from each region of Italy have been asked to create a ver- sion 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. GIULIA FRANCESCHINI An example of coral art (Photo: Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons agreement. Author: Marco Busdraghi. License: CC BY 3.0) Sicily's red gold, the corallo di Trapani HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS

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