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Lot Essay
Ever since antiquity coral has been held to have magical or medicinal properties, and has been used throughout history as a talisman to aid with problems of bleeding, fertility, and in the Renaissance, for the detection of poison in foods. Its mythical origins were told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, for when Perseus slayed the gorgon Medusa, the blood that flowed from her head turned to coral when it touched the ground.
Coral has also long been a prized material for the creation of works of art, and the production of coral items is documented in European centres as far apart as Landshut, in Bavaria, and Sicily. Trapani, a small town by the sea near Palermo, was certainly the most important centre of production, with its output supported by the court of the Sicilian Viceroy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Indeed it gave its name to a distinctive group of coral-mounted objects which are often referred to as 'Trapani wares'. The intensely calligraphic impact of Trapani wares, with dense patterns of intertwined enamel and coral foliage on a lustrous gilt-bronze ground, betrays the strong Moorish influence on Sicilian art.
Related Trapani frames include examples in Santiago da Compostela and formerly in the Whitaker collection, illustrated in M.C. di Natale ed., Splendori di Sicilia, exh. cat., Milan, 2001, p. 50, fig. 48, and p.33, fig. 15, while a further example in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia is illustrated in V. Abbate ed., Wunderkammer Siciliana alle origini del Museo Perduto, exh. cat., Naples, 2001, cat. I.30, pp. 123-4. A magnificent Trapani table cabinet, with engraved panels very similar to the back of this frame, was sold from Longleat, Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 473 (£369,650 inc. premium), while another Trapani frame remains at Longleat.
Coral has also long been a prized material for the creation of works of art, and the production of coral items is documented in European centres as far apart as Landshut, in Bavaria, and Sicily. Trapani, a small town by the sea near Palermo, was certainly the most important centre of production, with its output supported by the court of the Sicilian Viceroy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Indeed it gave its name to a distinctive group of coral-mounted objects which are often referred to as 'Trapani wares'. The intensely calligraphic impact of Trapani wares, with dense patterns of intertwined enamel and coral foliage on a lustrous gilt-bronze ground, betrays the strong Moorish influence on Sicilian art.
Related Trapani frames include examples in Santiago da Compostela and formerly in the Whitaker collection, illustrated in M.C. di Natale ed., Splendori di Sicilia, exh. cat., Milan, 2001, p. 50, fig. 48, and p.33, fig. 15, while a further example in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia is illustrated in V. Abbate ed., Wunderkammer Siciliana alle origini del Museo Perduto, exh. cat., Naples, 2001, cat. I.30, pp. 123-4. A magnificent Trapani table cabinet, with engraved panels very similar to the back of this frame, was sold from Longleat, Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 473 (£369,650 inc. premium), while another Trapani frame remains at Longleat.