Stanford surgeon's love of Rodin leads to high-tech exhibit

The hands sculpted by Auguste Rodin are among the late 19th century's most expressive works of art.

They are also in desperate need of a good doctor.

On display at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center, one has several broken fingers. Another seems to suffer from a cyst on a nerve. A third may have symptoms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. A fourth is missing a thumb.

We know this because we can share in the science -- through art -- of medical diagnosis, on display at the exhibit "Inside Rodin's Hands," which runs through Sunday.

The internal anatomy of 10 different Rodin hands are re-created in a high-quality 3-D virtual model built by a Stanford team, using CT scans of modern hands with similar ailments.

Dr. James Chang is photographed with The Three Shades at the Rodin Sculpture Garden at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto on July 30, 2014. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

Visitors can view the underlying structures -- bones, nerves and blood vessels -- from every angle, via an iPad. It's like seeing Rodin's hands through the eyes of a surgeon.

A diagnosis for each hand has been prepared by Dr. James Chang, a Stanford hand surgeon, and students in his undergraduate course "Surgical Anatomy of the Hand: From Rodin to Reconstruction," which studies the anatomy and aesthetics of human structure.

They propose surgical solutions: Bones rejoined. Connective tissue removed. Enzymes injected. Nerves and tendons transferred. Joints replaced.

The new exhibit is part of a time-honored intersection of art and anatomy dating back to the Renaissance.

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Stanford surgeon's love of Rodin leads to high-tech exhibit