I was just looking at some photos by a friend who lives in Copenhagen. She took some really nice shots at the Thorvaldsen Museum--which I googled, wondering if it's the same Thorvaldsen whose Christus statue the Mormon church is always bragging about having in the Salt Lake Temple visitors center. You know, Jebus in Outer Space.

I knew nothing about Thorvaldsen, obviously, and had always assumed he was a modern-day Mormon sculptor and the statue was an original. In fact, Thorvaldsen was a very famous sculptor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and his Christus statue is also very famous, and the original is at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen.

So the statue in Salt Lake is a replica. A lot of you probably know this already, but it was news to me.

Funny how they always make out like it's the original. Here's an especially blatant example, implying that they bought the original: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/69190

God, what a bunch of liars.

They used the one that is chillin in the visitor center in SLC first in 1964 at the Worlds Fair in New York.

IIRC the World's Fair was also where they first used nametags for mishies and the white shirt "look" that has become their signature look (and they are welcome to it!).

That is news to me...I always thought it was an original. There's even a picture of me kneeling before that Jesus statue when I was 5 or 6. What a fucking crock.

Thorvaldsen's statue is known all over Scandinavia. There used to be made small copies of it, just a foot or two high, and you still find these in homes and meeting houses. We used to have one that had lost an arm, so we joked about the statue having been tempted.

The original is above the alter in Vor Frue kirke (Our Lady's Church), which is also the Lutheran cathedral of Copenhagen. In this link http://www.koebenhavnsdomkirke.dk/ to a Danish language page there is a photo of it on top (background). There is a link to English information at the bottom of the page.

Thorvaldsen made this statue and several other's for this church. "Christus" was placed there in 1839.

...are also from Denmark. I saw the originals in a small room in the back of a castle chapel. The funny thing is that there are more in the series that the LDS church doesn't use because they feature halos or don't fit with LDS doctrine.

From the BYU link:
""They said, 'There is no external evidence that we believe in Jesus Christ. You can't find him anywhere,'" Richardson said. "They wanted to make it so you can't leave without seeing Him."

You can't make this stuff up.

Huh, I didn't get the impression that they are selling it as an original. I even remember during the tours they would say that it's a replica.

I don't think I've ever heard it claimed it was an original. Every time I've taken a tour, the tour guide has always mentioned the original and the name of the original sculptor.

Yes, I remember even watching a video on BYUtv where the 12 go to Denmark and see the original. They did a whole biography on the sculptor. I have always understood it was a replica.

If the cult ever came clean on anything, I believe I would have a heart attack!

Timothy

...is that it supposedly looks more like the real Jesus than any other statue on earth. Yeah right.

No one thinks we believe in Christ, so if we stick a massive Jesus replica in our visitor center, people will think what we want them to think about us. Kind of like up-fonting the words"Jesus Christ" in the cult logo or mandating that members start including christ in their public testimonies.

So they "know" about Christ now do they? Oh my, I'm getting old.

Yeah, I read the byu article you linked to and this sentence stuck out glaringly:

"They decided to present their plans to have a statue of Christ on Temple Square, more specifically Thorvaldsen's Christus, and display it outside."

I think a big part of the story is missing, like learning how the church commissioned a duplicate would be an interesting part of the story. How did the artist make a copy so close to the original? Instead, the reader is left with the impression that the SLC temple square copy is the original.

What about the copyright?

Something that big a famous, word would get back to Copenhagen that there was a bootleg copy out there.

There is also a "Christus" statue in a medical school back east somewhere, but darnit, I can't remember the name of the school...Arrgh!

http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/showthread.php?p=160057

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/18/us/mormon-statue-battered.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2011 01:10PM by Dave the Atheist.

Seriously though, I've always known it was a replica. I spent part of a summer as a teenager in Scandinavia with my Norwegian cousins. I think the church just doesn't broadcast the fact it's not original Mormon work. And Mormons can be woefully ignorant - our home teacher quoted Thoreau last visit but said it was one of the GA's. Actually, the GA was quoting Thoreau and our HT didn't know it and thought it was original Mormon brilliance. But it isn't necessarily the fact of the members, if the church is lying by omission about where some of their finer material comes from.

from the article:

“the Christus, first displayed in the Church of our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark, has become synonymous with Mormonism.”

TSCC does admit that it is not a Mormon original. Nevertheless, to whom is the Christus “synonymous with Mormonism”?! Only to unformed Mormons. Christians would laugh at such a claim!

No Christian considers the Christus Mormon!

There's something about the acoustics of that room that makes me feel like singing Major Tom.

Four, three, two, one
Earth below us drifting, falling
Floating weightless, calling, calling home.....

It must seem really weird to people familiar with the Christus who weren't raised in Mormonism.

Nobody else cares or notices one whit.
The thing that shocked me when the "Christus" was first embrassed by the mormon church was that we didn't approve of all those statues and icons that were so prevalent in the other churches of the day.

Probably because I'm "older," but they made a BIG DEAL of how simple our meetinghouses were--how we didn't have any icons to worship like the great and abominable church, etc.

..is this statement. "The sculptor himself could not have foreseen his influence on audiences in its worldwide testament of Jesus Christ, especially because he ironically wasn't a devout Christian."

This statement makes no sense. First of all he may not have been devout in his actions; we don't know his heart. Most artists put their hearts and souls into what they create. Granted, an artist may create a work that does not necessarily reflect his own beliefs but we do not know this is not the case with this sculpture AND saying he couldn't foresee his influences on worldwide audiences would have NOTHING to do with his lacke of devotion.

Furthermore, dear TBM, whatever Thorvaldsen's level of personal devotion, I doubt he'd see Mormonism's hi-jacking of his image from a Christian church as promoting Christianity worldwide.
out

I realize that this statue doesn't, to me anyway, shout Mormonism at all. When in a Mormon setting it shouts, "see, Jesus is Mormon".

out

had in his cemetary and NOT from the original in the cathedral.

I think today that might be considered theft.

out

I always thought it was a replica. Don't know where I heard it - but I have all kinds of useless information in my head.

The thing about the story that makes me wonder is why the church and the son went against the wishes of the purchaser of the statue and made him public when he clearly wished to remain anonymous! Wow. So much for boundaries.