Radiologists use CT scanner, 3-D printer on sculptor’s moulds

LEBANON, N.H. – A team of hospital radiologists has used a CT scanner and 3-D printer to view and recreate what’s inside of sealed moulds of 19th century sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Like many sculptors, Saint-Gaudens preserved his moulds by sealing them between two plaster halves. The Valley News reports that over a year ago, the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire, contacted Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to see if a CT scanner could show what’s inside them. Art historians were reluctant to break them open.

The scanner looked at over 16 pieces and determined there were busts and heads, hands and legs, folds of fabric, and an eagle, parts of the Phillips Brooks Memorial in Boston. A digital model was created and a 3-D printer reconstructed the pieces on a smaller scale.

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Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com