Temple Statues (other than those of the Angel Moroni)

Most Latter-day Saint temples have statues of the Angel Moroni on their tallest spire, and I wrote about that a few posts ago.  I have also written about relief sculptures on temples.  I mentioned that there is only 1 temple I know of that had a non-Moroni sculpture on the temple.  In this post I’m going to talk about that temple’s sculptures and other statuary on LDS temple grounds.

The Salt Lake Temple is the only temple I know of that used to have statues other than of the Angel Moroni on the temple.  I wrote “statues” because there were 2 of them and I wrote “used to” because they have since been moved to elsewhere on temple square.  Have you ever noticed those little covered spaces just to the sides of the doors of the Salt Lake Temple (seen in the picture on the right of the door)?  Brides love to get pictures standing underneath them.  Well these aren’t just wedding picture locations, they are statuary niches.  The top covering would keep rain off statues, slowing corrosion while framing the statue at the same time.  While there are 4 places for statues, there were only ever 2 statues placed in them.  Originally bronze statues of the martyrs Joseph Smith Jr. and his brother Hyrum Smith were placed in the statuary niches on the east side of the Salt Lake Temple.

Some years after the completion of the Salt Lake Temple the church moved the statues to another spot on temple square south of the temple so you can still see them there.  I am confused why they did this.  Articles I’ve read discussing this say that the niches are loved by brides getting pictures, but the west niches never had statues so brides could still use those.  Also, these were in the temple design and are symbols of sacrifice, testimony, and priesthood (a prophet and patriarch) among other things.  I think they should be put back in the niches.  Maybe the reasoning was that having 2 of 4 niches empty was silly, but having 4 of 4 niches empty is even sillier in my opinion.  Maybe they wanted them to get noticed more on temple square; however, with the general public now allowed to walk right up to the doors this isn’t an issue.  Placing statues in the niches should also attract more attention.  Moving the statues would also be really easy and would provide more protection to them.

Well, this post isn't just about these statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on the Salt Lake Temple, but before I leave that topic I'd like to propose a discussion for the comments.  If the church put the statues back in the niches on the east side of the temple and they wanted to fill the two empty west statuary niches, who's statue would you place there?  I know a few of my nominations, but I'll save them for the comments.  There are a lot of factors to consider - the symbolism, importance of the people, how the statues will match the other two, etc.  PLEASE COMMENT. 

Other temples also have statues on their grounds.  Here is a list I've compiled (very incomplete):

Many temples have visitors centers with replicas of Thorvaldsen's Christus statue.  Although I really like this statue, I would like to see the church commission Christ statues or make replicas of other artist’s Christ statues for some variety.  I can always see the Christus replica when I visit Temple Square in Salt Lake.

Manti Utah Temple – this temple actually has a statue of the ancient American prophet Moroni, only not as an angel and not on the tower or temple itself.

Salt Lake Temple – Temple Square has many statues on the grounds.

Laie Hawaii Temple – Multiple statues by the Fairbanks brothers ore around the temple including:

  A fountain statue dedicated to motherhood with a mother holding a giant clam shell and pouring water over children as a symbol of mothers pouring love, hope and care on their children. 

  A statue of Joseph being blessed by his father.

  A statue of the The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi

Oakland California Temple – The courtyard has a sculpture of children (and a cute dog) and quotes 3 Nephi  17

Nauvoo Illinois Temple – Grounds to the west have a statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on horseback.

Rome Italy Temple – This planned temple has a plaza between the visitors center, stake center, patron housing, family history center and temple that includes statues.  You can clearly see in the rendering bronze statues showing the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood and the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.  In addition there are 2 other statues.  One looks like it has women, the other I’m not sure.

Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple – shares grounds with a pioneer cemetery with statues and bas-relief sculptures.

I also notice that the Manti Utah Temple has a bunch of empty statuary niches.  I don't think these were ever planned to contain statues.  In the Logan Utah Temple the same places have windows.

If you want to discuss other temple statues, talk about adding statues to future temples, or anything else, PLEASE COMMENT.

I personally think that one of the new 2 towered temples would look good with a statue of the Aaronic Priesthood restoration in front of the Aaronic Priesthood side (baptistery entrance) and a statue of the Melchizedek Priesthood Restoration in front of the Melchizedek Priesthood side (main entrance).  These could either be in niches above the doors or just have a path around them.  Bas-relief sculptures would also be an option.  Either way the art would strengthen temple themes and teach.

I also like the idea of putting other statues on temples.  For instance, John the Baptist would look great on a temple west spire.  He already shows up in a lot of temple baptistery paintings and stained glass.

-The following is an addition to the original post

My brother-in-law reminded me of a few statues inside the Salt Lake Temple.  In the celestial room, in front of a Tiffany glass window there is a statue of a woman with two babies on either side.  She is holding something, I think laurels or flowers, or another plant.  I have been unable to find the reference on this, but I thought the statue is supposed to represent something and not a specific person.  It represents love or innocence or some ideal like that.  I find several blog entries claiming it is Aphrodite which in 1890s neoclassicism means love, beauty and fetility.  I also have found some people who say it is the Virgin Mary (one even claimed the Catholic church had donated it to the LDS church) but I'm not sure about that because the statue is flanked by 2 children, not holding one infant Jesus.

There is also a statue of a Cupid or Eros or a cherub on a railing on a staircase that leads up to a sealing room where couples are married for time and all eternity.  The statue is only a foot or so tall and includes a quiver of arrows.  This is clearly a symbol of love.  Neoclassical statues like these were common in 1893 and even earlier.  Many cathedrals in Europe are filled with similar statues representing ideals or showing Greek and Roman gods in a symbolic Christian way (like having Cupid for love).  The other statues in the Celestial Room( if you want to call them statues) are a few birds and a lot of fruits and flowers carved into the walls and ceiling.

Angel Moroni Statues

Wow, I have not written on this blog in a long while. This is mainly because nobody ever commented on my posts. So please comment on my posts and if you like the content in this blog, link it to your web pages/ blogs, it helps get more readers here.

So today's post is about Angel Moroni statues. The Angel Moroni was an angel who appeared to Joseph Smith Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormon or LDS church).  To quickly summarize, the angel gave Joseph Smith the record that The Book of Mormon is translated from  For a complete account click here.  Verses 30 on in particular deal with the Angel Moroni.  These statues are on most Latter-day Saint temples as a symbol that revelation still exists, the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, and of the angel mentioned in Rev 14:6.  Eight temples don't Angel Moroni statues because they lack a spire (Laie Hawaii, Cardston Alberta Canada, Mesa Arizona) or because they were built before the statues were traditional (St. George Utah, Logan Utah, Manti Utah, Hamilton New Zealand, Oakland California). Originally the Idaho Falls Idaho, Bern Switzerland, London England, Ogden Utah, Provo Utah, Sao Paulo Brazil, Tokyo Japan, and Freiburg Germany Temples lacked statues, but have since had them added. The Boston Massachusetts Temple and Manhattan New York Temple both had spires added shortly after their dedications (due to a court case for Boston).

The image at the top of this post shows 5 Moroni statues and a proto-Moroni weather vane. This shows some of the diversity in Moroni statue design. The first picture shows how the angel weather vane on the Nauvoo Temple would have originally looked. This was the only flying angel statue on a temple and wasn't specified as Moroni. Notice that he is holding a book and not gold plated. This may imply that he was a general angel and not Moroni specifically, or that he was someone such as Joseph Smith (as one institute teacher of mine theorized). Regardless of the intended identity, this weather vane represented the angel in Revelation 14:6

The next temple with an angel was the Salt Lake Temple. Originally it was planned to have 2 angel weather vanes (Nauvoo style) with one on the east center tower and one on the west center tower (scroll down in the link for the drawing). By the time the temple was completed 40 years later in 1893, styles had changed and statues were more common on the tops of buildings (think U.S. capitol building). So Cyrus E. Dallin was commissioned to make a standing angel statue, now identified as Moroni. This is the second picture on the image above (from the left).

63 years after the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, the Los Angeles Temple was the next temple with an Angel Moroni statue. This statue (3rd from left in above picture) is quite unique
because Moroni is Native American and dressed in Mayan clothing. Also, this is one of the few Moroni statues holding gold plates and not just a trumpet. The Washington D.C. Temple also has an Angel Moroni statue holding plates and replicas of this statue are found on the Jordan River Utah (pictured 4th from left), Seattle Washington and Mexico City Mexico Temples. These are the only temples with Angel Moroni statues holding plates.

As all temples began to include Angel Moroni statues several styles have been used. When the small temples first began to be built, the Monticello Temple was given a white Angel Moroni statue holding a trumpet and a scroll. Unfortunately the white statue disappeared in the clouds so it was replaced with a gold leafed one shortly thereafter and now all Moroni statues are gold leafed. Five temples have Moroni with a scroll (5th from left in picture). These are the Anchorage Alaska, Bismarck North Dakota, Columbus Ohio, Kona Hawaii, and Caracas Venezuela Temples.

It should also be noted that Angel Moroni statues are not exclusive to Temples. The Washington D. C. ward chapel had a replica of the Salt Lake Temple Moroni sculpted by Torlief Knaphus (this replica is now in the Church Museum of History and art and castings of it were added to the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple and Atlanta Georgia Temple (since replaced)).  The Hill Cumorah Monument (far right in picture) also has a Moroni Statue without a trumpet, but with gold plates (and a beard!).

I also want to note that there is a lot of lore about Angel Moroni statues having to face east. This simply isn't true. While most do, because many (not all) temples face east, at least the following do not face east: Seattle Washington (west), Dallas Texas (South), Nauvoo Illinois (West), Spokane Washington (West, although originally East), Taipei Taiwan (West), and Manhattan New York (Southwest).

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you've learned something. Please post a comment to encourage me to keep this blog up to date. Also if you know any interesting Angel Moroni Statue trivia, please comment.

Due to comments I am adding the following:

Well there have been 5 sculptors (6 if you count LaVar Wallgren as distinct from Quilter). Read Ensign Jan 2010 article

The sculptors and corresponding Angel Moroni statues are:

Cyrus Dallin - Salt Lake, Copper, 12'5"

Torlief Knaphus - SL replica for D.C. Chapel, hollow Aluminum (now in the Church Museum of History and Art). Fiberglass castings of this statue by LaVar Wallgren were placed on the Atlanta Georgia (later replaced) and Idaho Falls Temples. Knaphus Also did the Hill Cumorah Moroni (10'4" bronze) He also helped Avard Fairbanks do the Laie Hawaii Temple Font and he sculpted the oxen for the Cardston Alberta, Mesa Arizona and Idaho Falls Temple Fonts.

Millard F. Malin - L.A., 15'5" Aluminum

Avard Fairbanks - Washington D.C. (18ft bronze) and 15'2" bronze castings of the same sculpture for Jordan River, Seattle Washington, and Mexico City Temples.

Karl Quilter - 1978 commission for a 10ft and 7ft Moroni. The originals were then cast in fiberglass by LaVar Wallgren and used on many temples. Quilter got a 1998 commission to make a 6'10" Moroni for small temples. Although the article doesn't mention it, he would have had to have made the Moroni w/ scroll used on 5 temples and then the Moroni w/ open hand used on all future temples. Fiberglass castings of these are used on many temples. Over 100 Karl Quilter/LaVar Wallgren Moroni statues are on temples. Quilter also made L.A. font oxen. Wallgren makes Moroni statues in his Kearns, UT studio.

LaVar Wallgren has generally worked with Karl Quilter and may be considered a sixth sculptor of Angel Moroni statues.  He did a casting of the Washington D.C. Chapel Angel Moroni statue that was used on the Atlanta Georgia Temple for a while and may have done other statues without Quilter, although I am not certain if Quilter was or was not involved with Wallgren on all of Wallgren's Mornoni statues. 

Addition to the original post (added 18 March 2011)
Here are articles on Angel Moroni statues if you want to read more here and here: