The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just completed renovating the Washington DC Temple and the open house is starting this week. I love what has been done and am writing a few posts about my reaction to the renovation. My last post was about the stained glass. This one will be about the murals.
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| Original Washington DC Temple Rotunda Mural |
The Washington DC Temple has a stunning mural of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I wrote about this 30ft long mural in a previous post. It is in the rotunda that you enter after crossing the bridge from the recommend desk. The church released a rendering of the rotunda with the mural clearly visible as shown below. This mural showed Jesus Christ with the righteous on his right hand pleased to great him and the wicked hiding on his left hand. Many races and time periods are represented with a diverse group on both sides. The Washington DC Temple can be seen in the mural on the side with the righteous. As you would walk across the bridge you initially could mainly see Jesus. It was only as you started to enter the rotunda that you realized this was a second coming AND judgement scene. To me, this mural says as you enter the temple that you will want to be ready to greet Jesus at his coming and that the temple and its ordinances will help you with that. Then when you leave the temple you are again greeted by the mural and are reminded that the temple is vital to where you will stand at His coming. This is in my estimation the most valuable artwork in the entire temple.
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| Washington DC Temple Bridge Rendering (Original Mural Visible) |
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| Washington DC Temple Rotunda Rendering Original Mural Visible |
With that preface, you might understand my confusion when I watched the video on CBS News with the reporter and apostles and apostles wives crossing the bridge to the rotunda with the mural nowhere to be seen. A completely new and smaller painting of the Second Coming is in its place. The rendering had shown the original mural, but apparently it was removed sometime and I don't understand why. The rotunda is still lovely, but it is lacking a 50 or so year old artistic masterpiece. I looked through the photos and it has definitely been removed. I hoped that it had maybe just been moved to another area in the temple similar to how a mural of the Mount of Transfiguration in the Ogden Utah Temple was moved in the renovation, but I can't find any photo of it. If you know where it has ended up, please comment. I thought maybe it has been moved to the visitor's center, but the press release didn't mention this. I also don't understand why anyone would want to move this important mural. I found a post online from an art restoration company that stated that they had cleaned and repaired the mural about 8 years ago. It mentioned that some damage had been done. I wonder if during the remodel they found more damage. Another possibility is that it was removed because the woodwork appears to have been changed from what I remember as a black walnut to a slightly brighter African wood. This may not have complimented the painting as well, although I think they could easily have just added black walnut molding or accents in the rotunda to blend the styles together. I also wondered if it was moved for being a painting without diversity, until I looked at a photo of it and noticed all sorts of races shown with the righteous and decided that couldn't be the reason. So I don't know what has happened to this stunning mural. If you know, please let me know.
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| Washington DC Temple Rotunda New Painting |
The baptistry has murals added. I can't remember if those are new, or were added in a previous remodel. They are definitely not original. The mural shows the Baptism of Jesus Christ. I think this is actually a copy of the mural in the Ogden Utah Temple baptistry added during that temple's remodel. I love it.
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| Washington DC Temple Baptistry |
Those are my thoughts on the murals in the renovated Washington DC Temple. If you are in the DC are soon, go see the open house. It is a beautify House of the Lord.
10 comments:
The new artwork was specifically commissioned for the temple. The previous mural is in storage. There are no certain plans to display it elsewhere. I think that the idea was to focus less on judgement and more on His glorious return.
Well dehurt, I'm glad that the mural is at least stored safely. That's better than what happened to the Salt Lake murals where only "portions" of them got saved.
Maybe they'll save it for another temple someday? I know that some temples have previously incorporated stained glass and artwork that were donated from other churches, so it's a possibility.
That is interesting and what I assumed happened. I found it strange that they had the original mural in their renderings when they were going to switch it out. Where did you find out that they had stored the mural? I wasn't finding anything about it's fate online.
The owner of the churchofjesuschristtemples.org Instagram account commented on the post that he thought the mural was hidden under the wood panels. I don't know where he heard that. Probably not the best way to preserve it.
I was thinking that it did seem a little too much of a "Us vs Them" narrative. The temple is painted on one side and on the other side there are buildings that some way look like the government buildings in the area. Maybe it would not have played well during the open house.
If you look at the renders, you can see that the place where the mural was is set into the wall about 2 feet, the mural was painted to fit that recess specifically.
When you look at the current photos, you will see the wall is now flush all the way across, indicating the recess has been covered over (whether the painting is back there or not.)
When the Church first released the high resolution photos, they did it in a slightly different way than they are offering them now. That method allowed you access to a sub folder labeled "Trash." In that folder was a pair of photos of that foyer, both labeled "20210729_122353_LNilsson_Rotunda_xxxx.jpg" (The x's were a unique 4-digit number for each image.) Both of THOSE photos showed the mural in place, indicating it was there and in place 8 months ago.The photos were taken from almost the exact same place as the existing photos showing the red robe painting.
In the photo of the new painting looking straight on, if you look at the first 3 wood panels to the right of the painting (these would be the new panels put in place over the recess) you will see very clear seam marks along the bottom of the trim. You will also see marks at the top of at least one of the panels that indicate it was not properly sanded before being finished. Those panels are not up to what I have been told to expect from "Temple Standard Finish." This indicates to me that perhaps they are not intended to be permanent. At the very least, they appear to have been completed and installed in some level of haste.
Last thought, One of my contacts indicated to me this week that they were able to confirm that the mural was still in place as recently as a month ago.
As for where the owner of the churchofjesuschristtemples.org Instagram account got his information, that was likely from me sharing this information with him earlier this week via email. If it turns out to be incorrect information, blame me, not him!
Brian,
I recently talked to an ordinance worker at the DC temple, who said that President Nelson didn't like it that much because he thought that it wasn't an "uplifting" painting for patrons. As to whether it is covered by wood panels or taken into storage, I don't know for sure.
The painter of the new commission is Dan Wilson. At his Instagram account (@dan.wilson.art), he posted a video of himself signing the painting (called His Return) on January 7 of this year. He said is was approved by the First Presidency and the prints will be in future temples, but the original will stay in Washington D.C. He said that there was a request to include angels of different races. He posted in September 2020 that he was looking for models to paint the angels. Back then, he just had a small study version while he was preparing to paint the mural.
The Salt Lake Tribune ran an article today about the missing mural. Apparently it has definitely been removed and will be refurbished. They don't know where it will go. I'm guessing an art museum.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/04/22/missing-this-washington/
The mural has been removed and not simply covered by wood panels. It will be displayed at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. The removal of the mural has not been well received by long-time members of the surrounding Stakes, particularly because the artwork put in its place is unremarkable.
The mural is definitely in the MTC in Provo. My nephew just entered the MTC and sent out some pictures including one of this mural…
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