THE CORAL’S HOLY FIRE TO LIGHTEN THE SOUL

"Since I was a little child I’ve always heard about coral from my father and even earlier I’ve heard from my grandmother.
My childhood has been populated by the witchery of this material that under expert and erudite hands could assume every possible shape. Its red, warm and intense colour that surrounds and bewitches all the men suddenly attracted and captured me so much that I have almost became one of its modest servant.”
It’s a love relationship that connects Alessio Sorrentino with coral. He sees it, he feels it and he questions it. After this phase he begins with a particular and meticulous work with his hands, with his graving tool and with his little fraises that seem to be stolen from a dentist’s working room.
There is no room for mistakes; every piece is a mono block we cannot give other pieces just proportion and purity to reach the perfection.
Coral’s branch says to me in what I should transform it: into a Bacchus, into a flower, into a female's profile, into an allegory, into a statuette. This is the secret to avoid wasting even a singular gram of this very precious miracle of nature.
“I prefer to grave corals that come from Japan because its firm and its softness permit superior and more ingenious engravings.”
In Sorrentino’s words there is the knowledge of sacrality bounds to coral:
- Red: God’s blood;
- White: earth’s milk".

Since antichity coral is one of more used gem by men to invoke protection and divine’s benevolence and it is represented in all religions with iconographies.
“Coral is life,” says Sorrentino “because it is a perfect syntax between animal’s, vegetable’s and mineral’s reigns; in coral there is also the spiritual’s reign.
For this reason, a coral necklace is able to complete a person. Set in yellow gold if we want to emanate warm; set in white gold if we desire a delicate brightness. ”
The jeweller completes my work and from his fantasy, from his experiences he is able to give the best to my creations.
Sculptures come to eyes and heart for their rotundity and plasticity: apotheosis of the same sublime touched by jewelleries.