This is a continuation of my discussion on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Temple Murals. You can find the other parts by clicking on the respective links:
Part 1: The Beginnings of Temple Murals
Part 2: The Manti and Salt Lake Temple Murals
Part 3: The Spireless Temple Murals
Celestial Room Murals
So far I have discussed murals through the Mesa Arizona Temple. Today I will discuss the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple and the Los Angeles California Temple and their murals. These two temples used murals to a great degree. Both baptisteries included murals. In addition, both celestial rooms have murals (which I discussed in
this post) which are very uncommon. The only other temples with celestial room murals (to my knowledge) are the Hamilton New Zealand Temple (Brett posted on this blog and told me about that one) and the Logan Temple sort of has celestial room murals, but not really. The original Logan Temple celestial room had murals added in 1929. You can read more
here.
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| Idaho Falls Temple Baptistery |
As I stated above, the murals start in the baptistery. In the 2 pictures I am showing, you can see that one mural is of the baptism of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure what the other mural is of, or if there are 4 murals total in the room, or just the 2 pictured. I assume the other mural(s) are of baptisms in the scriptures.
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| Idaho Falls Temple Baptistery |
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| Idaho Falls Temple Creation Room |
The creation room mural is fairly simple and is done in a 1940s style. It is also fairly dark. I mention this because as one progresses through the endowment, the rooms get lighter.
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| Idaho Falls Temple Garden Room |
The two trees at the front of the garden room represent the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil found in the Garden of Eden. The outlines and some details of these two trees are carved into the wall, which is really cool.
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| Idaho Falls Temple Garden Room Detail |
The garden room has many different deep colors. I also like the abundance of plants and animals in this mural. They are jammed into every space.
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| Idaho Falls Temple World Room |
The world room has murals with people in them. Here you see a husband and wife working together plowing a field as a reminder that we are to work in this fallen world. On another wall pioneers in covered wagons are coming through a canyon. All along the wall filled with windows are seagulls coming to save the pioneers from crickets that were devastating their crops. The message of the room is that the world is fallen (shown through the need for work, the sagebrush and not lush landscape), the joy and success of that work (husband and wife happily getting along, pioneers successfully emigrating), the struggles in life (work, being forced to emigrate, the trial of the crickets) and the grace from God (the seagulls miraculously coming to save the pioneers by eating the crickets). Progression is shown as this room is lighter than the garden room (partly due to light sagebrush and white seagulls). It is fitting that the brightest part of the painting - the seagulls (which cover a wall of bright windows) represent the help from God. This is a great message for a world room to convey.
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| Idaho Falls Temple Celestial Room |
The Celestial Room has an extremely rare celestial room mural. The mural shows a lot of people in white socializing with one another. Some carry flowers, books, etc. The landscape is full of lush grass as a sort of Elysian Fields image of heaven. Vibrant colors have returned (remember in the world room the colors were faded, not the deep colors of the garden room). Families are together. I haven't seen a picture of it, but I have done a session in this temple so I'll tell you about the rest of the mural. Along one wall there is John the Revelator writing as an angel is talking to him. In vision he is seeing Zion, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven as recorded in the Book of Revelation. It really is a wonderful way to do a celestial room. Above the mural the ceiling soars into the spire and windows let in a lot of light.
The Los Angeles California Temple Murals
I found a Time Magazine article on the LA Temple. It can be found
here. Here is an excerpt:
But most interesting is the second floor, containing the Five Rooms—"a series of classrooms explaining the purpose of life, where we come from, what we are doing, where we are going."
No. 1 is the Creation Room—ovalshaped, with murals of the sun and moon. No. 2 is the Garden of Eden, "where," reads a sign, "Adam and Eve made their great decision." Next is the World Room, with murals inspired by Death Valley, which "represents the lone and dreary world, the testing ground." No. 4 is the Terrestrial Room, "fourth stage on the path to celestial glory, the step before entering the Celestial Kingdom." One of its walls opens onto the fifth room decorated as a luxurious sitting room, with well-upholstered chairs and settees, delicate murals and elaborate chandeliers.
This represents the Celestial Kingdom itself, "where exalted man may dwell in the presence of God."
The Los Angeles Temple baptistery has a mural of the baptism of Jesus.
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| LA Temple Baptistery |
The endowment rooms are huge! The creation room appears to be in vibrant colors starting with darkness and showing a spectacular sun.
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| LA Temple Creation Room |
The garden room is lush with vibrant colors. It appears brighter and lighter than the previous room. There is a mural in the lobby of the Jordan River Utah Temple that is based on the LA Temple garden room. That mural shows a lamb and lion laying down together.
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| LA Temple Garden Room |
The world room depicts Adam and Eve after leaving the Garden of Eden. I think this is the last temple endowment room mural to include people (Manti and Idaho Falls also show people). The room is even brighter and lighter than the previous rooms with faded colors.
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| LA Temple World Room | |
I also notice that the world room landscape is exaggerated and grand. It is something you might find in an epic movie, which is fitting as the temple is near Hollywood. I am told these rooms are huge, but I have never actually attended this particular temple. If you have, please comment with your insights.
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| LA Temple World Room |
There are no murals in the terrestrial room (that I know of) but as you can see, the room is huge.
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| LA Temple Terrestrial Room |
The celestial room also contains murals. The image is faded, but they appear to show a landscape of some sort.
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| LA Temple Celestial Room |
There has been some debate on this blog, but I'm almost certain now that this next photo is of the Hamilton New Zealand Celestial room that appears to have received a celestial room mural at some point.
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| Hamilton New Zealand Celestial Room |
The Idaho Falls and LA Temples were the last temples with live presentation of the endowment (the Bern Switzerland Temple was dedicated between the two temples and was the first temple to use a video to present the endowment). As temples started using film for the endowment, the need for different rooms to present the endowment, and the accompanying murals in those rooms, was lost. Luckily the last temples with murals went all out. They had baptistery and celestial room murals. They had people in the world room murals. The murals were partly sculpted in Idaho Falls. The murals showed progression and taught lessons. As the era of temple murals ended, some of the best murals were produced. It was between the dedications of the Idaho Falls and LA Temples that the Manti Temple garden and world room murals were painted. In my opinion, this is when the most creativity went into temple paintings. Perhaps God inspired the artists more than usual because he knew we wouldn't have new murals until the last few years (mid 2000s) when they became standard again.
