Michael Cole's essay Cellini's Blood posits that the blood spewing from Medusa's neck in Benvenuto Cellini's mid-16th-century bronze at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence--and that dripping and coagulating from her neck--evokes coral. Coral was thought to have come either from Medusa's ichor itself or from seaweed that was petrified by her gaze and turned red from her blood. The significance is how it relates to bronze and the art of casting, looking especially at Cellini's dramatic autobiography and also enhances the value of the gift--coral being precious and acting as a periapt--being presented by Perseus to the citizens of Florence.
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