Angel Moroni - Sculptors

Sculptors

The Nauvoo Temple was the first Latter Day Saint temple to be crowned with a figure of an angel. This angel, not identified with Moroni, was a gilded wooden weathervane sculpted by an unknown artist in 1846. This figure was positioned in a flying horizontal position holding an open book in one hand and a trumpet in the other.

Cyrus Dallin sculpted the first angel which was identified as Moroni. This angel was placed on the Salt Lake Temple during the capstone ceremony on April 6, 1892, one year to the day before the temple was dedicated. Dallin's design is a dignified, neoclassical angel in robe and cap, standing upright with a trumpet in hand. It stands 3.8 meters high, was molded in hammered copper from the plaster original, and covered with 22-karat gold leaf.

Torlief Knaphus fashioned a replica of the Cyrus Dallin angel in the 1930s, but the casting of his angel was never placed on a temple until many years later. In 1983, castings of this angel were placed on the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple (8th operating temple), and the Atlanta Georgia Temple (21st operating temple).

Millard F. Malin's angel, which was placed on the Los Angeles California Temple in 1953 (dedicated 1956) is known as the second Angel Moroni statue. His angel was cast in aluminum, stands 4.7 meters high and weighs 953 kilograms. It has Native American features, wears a Mayan style cloak and holds the gold plates in its left hand

Avard Fairbanks sculpted the third Angel Moroni statue which was placed on the Washington D.C. Temple, dedicated in 1974. This angel was created as a one-meter model which was sent to Italy where it was enlarged, cast in bronze, and gilded. The finished statue is 5.5 meters high and weighs over 4,000 pounds (1814 kg). The Seattle Washington, Jordan River Utah, and México City México Temples each have a 4.6 meter casting of this statue.

Karl Quilter sculpted his first Angel Moroni in 1978. Two sizes were made, one 3 meters high, the other just over 2 meters. These statues were designed to reduce the cost and weight of the previous Angel Moroni statues, in order to become a standard part of the temple architecture. These angels are made of fiberglass and covered with gold leaf. In 1998 with the construction of many new smaller temples, Quilter was commissioned to create a new angel. This angel was similar in design to his previous angels, but he gave Moroni a slightly more massive build, with its left hand opened, and the body turned slightly to show more action. The image of the Bern Switzerland Temple's Angel Moroni is from Quilter's 1998 design. Quilter's Angel Moroni is on over one hundred temples around the world.