Four Trapani coral carvings - image-1
Four Trapani coral carvings - image-2
Four Trapani coral carvings - image-3
Four Trapani coral carvings - image-1Four Trapani coral carvings - image-2Four Trapani coral carvings - image-3

Lot 118 Dα

Four Trapani coral carvings

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 5.500 € - 6.500 €
Print page
Watchlist

Four Trapani coral carvings

Red coral (corallium rubrum, Sciacca and Sardegna). 1.) Cameo. Depicting a maenad with a crown of vine leaves. The reverse with remnants of old plaster mountings. 4.2 x 3.3 cm. 17th C. 2.) Putto with tendrils carved in the round. Possibly originally a handle. The lower edge with a small chip and a mounting hole. 6.8 x 4.7 cm. 17th C. 3) Oval cameo. Neoclassical relief portrait of a lady as a maenad facing left. 3.3 x 2.7 cm. 17th C. 4.) Oval cameo. High relief bust of a maenad in a crown of vine leaves, the head almost carved in the round and facing left. 2.9 x 4.5 cm. 18th C.
Sicily, Trapani, 17th / 18th century.

Coral has been carved and used as a gemstone since ancient times. In Italian folklore, red coral was considered apotropaic, which is why infants were protected with coral necklaces and rattles made of coral branches. In the 16th - 18th centuries, the ancient Mediterranean port of Trapani on the west coast of Sicily became an important centre for the production of objects made from the local red Mediterranean coral (corallium rubrum). Many of these works ended up in the European cabinets of curiosity.