CORAL: Something Rich and Strange

A beautiful quality Liverpool University Press publication produced to coincide with the eponymous exhibition at Manchester Museum, but exceeding it in scope and content. It examines the enduring fascination with coral as a material, symbol and inspiration for artists, cultures and societies across the centuries, its geological and architectural significance, its religious iconography, its magical and medical properties, its decorative appeal, and its sensitivity to climate change and pollution. Coral's blood red colour and its capacity for transformation and renewal became in Christianity a symbol for the passion and resurrection of Christ. While the religious symbolism reached its peak in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, vernacular beliefs in its apotropaic and therapeutic properties survived for centuries to come. Even today one can find keychains and small lucky charms with red cornetti dangling from them. Administered crushed and diluted in wine, coral was also said to stop blood flow and alleviate diseases. Scattered across fields with seeds or hung between branches of fruit trees, coral was supposed to guarantee a plentiful harvest and protection from storms. Coral has been used to craft decorative items and curiosities for 'wonder chambers' and thus began Aquarium mania. Marine organisms such as coral were not only fished out of the water and examined as pallid, stiff skeletons, but also observed as living beings in their natural habitat under water. In its natural state, in botanical illustrations, in artworks, in cabinets of curiosity, in collages, plus dozens of artworks and posters and exhibition items beautifully photographed against a bright white background, this large softback of 160pp measures 27.4 x 21.6cm.