Rock crystal transformations

What constitutes, by mass, about 12% of the lithosphere? basalt? carbonate? No, quartz in its various forms, especially rock crystal when it comes to clear or hyaline crystals. The latter has continued to captivate humans, who have made it a favorite material for many luxury objects, but also a subject of scientific research. This movement back and forth between art and science throughout the ages is the essence of the exhibition proposed by the Musée Cluny in Paris.

But what exactly are we talking about? Quartz is a silicate, with the formula SiO₂sometimes contain impurities, especially aluminium, iron (then amethyst) and lithium… We mainly mean crystals, sometimes gigantic, such as those with a volume of more than 14 cubic meters found in Manchu Felipe, Brazil, but also In the form of fine grains in granite, sandstone, sand…

One of the remarkable properties of rock crystal is its hardness, and our prehistoric ancestors weren’t wrong. In fact, even if flint (another silicate) remained the material of choice, some examples of rock-crystalline facies have come down to us. Thus a group of scrapers was brought to light in one of the rock shelters of Castel-Merle, in the Dordogne, or the “bay leaf” point discovered in Blackard Cave, in Charente. All of these artifacts date back to the Solotrian period, around 20,000 BC.

Interest in quartz, which is present in most ancient civilizations, continued in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia… and then among people from all continents, especially in India, China, South America, and the Middle East.

The resulting prestigious objects are often crafted in a sacred context, because the crystal is adorned with numerous virtues, ranging from purity and transparency. Christendom also succumbed to the magic of crystal, which constitutes, at least in part, many holy relics and liturgical objects.

The Greeks and Romans also used this metal.

One of the best examples isCrouching Aphrodite Carved at the beginning of our era. Aphrodite is known as “at the toilet” in reference to the birth of the goddess of beauty and pleasure, who according to legend emerges from the foam of the oceans. However, quartz is also a symbol of water.

And more than that, since the writings of Plato, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo (the first to talk about… Crystallos), rock crystal is a type of water freeze. This tradition would continue until the 18th century.^H The twentieth century and the work of the pioneers of crystallography, Jean-Baptiste Romet de L’Isle and René Juste Huy. To the first we owe the classification of crystals based on their angles, and to the second the concept of the crystal lattice.

From that time until today, quartz has hardly left the field of science. And so at the end of the nineteenth century^H In the 20th century, brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie discovered piezoelectricity in quartz crystals, or how mechanical deformation generates an electrical current. In this line, at the beginning of the twentieth century^H In the twentieth century, we observe that pure quartz, when exposed to an electric current, begins to vibrate at a constant frequency. By combining this phenomenon with the watch movement, we get… a quartz watch, born in 1967. The crystals used are of synthetic origin, because they are very pure.

Science, sure, but the arts have not given up on rock crystal, as many current creators have made it their preferred material.

The craze has been around since the early 20’s^H The twentieth century, and we find crystal in many works, most notably the works of “Crystal Cubism” embodied by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris, or the works of Alberto Giacometti. A few years ago, George Sand would have created the synthesis in his novel in the best possible way Lura. Journey to Crystal (From which Jules Verne largely inspired his works A trip to the center of the earth) where scientific, aesthetic and mystical fascination with rock crystal coexist. For this reason, the work gave its name to the exhibition.