International Union of Crystallography

[The Girl in a Picture Frame]Around Rembrandt and his Workshop

The Commission on Crystallography in Art and Cultural Heritage was established at the Osaka Congress in 2008 with two main aims:

•  Crystallography and symmetry in art;
•  Crystallographic analysis (e.g. diffraction-based) of artworks and ancient materials.

The full terms of reference for the Commission may be found at http://www.crystallography.fr/crysac/index.php.

A good example of a meeting addressing scientific achievements in art is 'Around Rembrandt and his Workshop', which was held recently at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.  This was the third in a series of meetings organized by scientists from Krakow (see http://www.heritagescience.pl/) with the aim of bringing together scientists from relevant disciplines with museum professionals (conservators and curators) responsible for the organization and preservation of art collections.

A fuller report of the meeting may be found at http://www.crystallography.fr/crysac/rembrandt.php.