Amuleti scursuna in corallo

Abstract

Some amulets in the shape of sea animals/monsters, called scursuna, have received little attention in scientific studies of the coral red works of the Trapani craftsmen of the late 18th and 19th centuries. These are not only fascinating artefacts because of the curiosity that coral and the symbolic universe to which it refers still arouse today, but they also hold an intrinsic interest on two levels: the first, easily intuitable, linked to popular customs and beliefs, and the second as an artistic manifestation to be related to the historicist eclecticism that also affected Sicilian decorative arts during the 19th century.