Genetics in the art and art in genetics

•Clinical skills are applied to Art Masterpieces using the painter’s record.•Diagnostic algorithm with differential diagnosis for clinical situations is proposed.•This approach should increase capability to recognise them.•Consequently, this could be useful to find syndrome signs and obtain a diagnosis.

“Healing is best accomplished when art and science are conjoined, when body and spirit are probed together”, says Bernard Lown, in his book “The Lost Art of Healing”.Art has long been a witness to disease either through diseases which affected artists or diseases afflicting objects of their art. In particular, artists have often portrayed genetic disorders and malformations in their work. Sometimes genetic disorders have mystical significance; other times simply have intrinsic interest.Recognizing genetic disorders is also an art form. From the very beginning of my work as a Medical Geneticist I have composed personal “algorithms” to piece together evidence of genetics syndromes and diseases from the observable signs and symptoms.In this paper we apply some ‘gestalt’ Genetic Syndrome Diagnostic algorithms to virtual patients found in some art masterpieces. In some the diagnosis is clear and in others the artists' depiction only supports a speculative differential diagnosis.