- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I have been preparing to teach the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this year (and looking forward to helping my students understand what it actually teaches much more deeply), and I want to give the Church proper kudos on the first picture in the online curriculum. It is of Mormon or Moroni recording their records, and the person pictured has darker skin. He easily could pass as Middle Eastern and absolutely does not look Caucasian. In fact, due to the shading in the art, he looks closer to black than to white.
It might seem like a little thing, but, along with the realistic pictures of Joseph translating the Book of Mormon, I think it represents a wonderful new accuracy in Church art work.
(Also, as an addendum, the new artwork in our local temple also reflects the actual genealogy of the Biblical figures much more realistically than what I have seen in the past – and we have one gorgeous picture of a black woman kneeling in a temple dress.)
I noticed this in the Come Follow Me stuff as well. I “leafed” through several weeks of stuff and while not all of them are devoid of folks who look Caucasian, many are. And I encountered none of Arnold Friberg’s stuff (I did not look at every week). I have nothing against Friberg, but his paintings always struck me as unrealistic because I really don’t think any man could actually be built that way and he clearly has an Aztec leaning in BoM location/geography. Another small but welcome step IMO.
I noticed a new picture of Lehi’s family and observed that Laman and Lemual had beards, Nephi and Sam did not. Supposing that Nephi and Sam were historical individuals, I don’t suppose we have conclusive evidence one way or the other on their facial hair. They are described as the younger brothers so maybe their face hair hadn’t come in yet. I can also understand an artist’s desire to easily tell characters apart. I just find it interesting that in the collective mind of Mormons, when we picture Nephi in our mind’s eye we imagine someone clean shaven. I imagine that we could trace that particular artistic choice back to Arnold Friberg. It is just interesting how some traditions and assumptions get started IMO.
Good point, Roy. I think Friberg probably did influence the idea of the good guys with no beards and the bad guys with beards, but I think he was far from alone in that belief and influence. BYU is still on that bandwagon. In truth, shaving was difficult in those days and few men were clean shaven and if they were it was only temporary. The idea that Nephi and others were younger and therefore portrayed without beards has some merit, but pictures of older Nephi also depict him beardless. I agree, it is interesting how ideas like this get started and persist. Disclaimer: I realize there’s some myth to this, but there’s some truth too. The irony here is that Nephi, Sam, and Lehi, being Israelites, likely all had full beards. Meanwhile Laman and Lemuel, fathers of the Lamanite people, the ones whose bloodline survived, being “among the ancestors of the American Indians” likely had wispy beards or even more likely no beards at all, which is more in line with Pre-Columbian indigenous people of the Americas, they didn’t typically have beards.
Granted Laman and Lemuel would probably have beards too and one could argue that their descendants gradually lost the practice of having beards over generations. One could also argue that beards went away at the same time the “curse” was placed on the Lamanites. That a beard is somehow representative of PH or something… since every bit of it is speculative anyway.
In short, they’ve got the facial hair exactly backwards?
Disclaimer 2: I haven’t seen the art.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.