Voyage Dans Le Cristal

Exhibition at the Musée de Cluny, Paris, 26 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

The transparency of rock crystal has fascinated civilisations from time immemorial. In the Middle Ages in particular, this transparent quartz was used in tableware, where it was prized for luxury crockery, and in decorative objects and jewellery. It is also attributed with a symbolic power that relates to purity, as expressed in the production of liturgical objects and reliquaries.

This exhibition catalogue brings together artistic masterpieces from prehistory to contemporary art. They illustrate the attraction and mystery generated by the transparency of quartz in all civilisations, and particularly in the Middle Ages. The narrative, both chronological and thematic, suggests dreamlike and fantastical worlds that highlight the many aspects of the aesthetic, scientific and spiritual power of rock crystal.