{"id":29644,"date":"2015-09-03T21:46:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T03:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=29644"},"modified":"2018-09-26T08:39:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T14:39:36","slug":"persecution-paradigm-c-c-a-christensens-mormon-panorama-at-the-byu-museum-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/persecution-paradigm-c-c-a-christensens-mormon-panorama-at-the-byu-museum-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Persecution Paradigm: C. C. A. Christensen’s Mormon Panorama at the BYU Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exterior<\/a>

Exterior of Carthage Jail by C.C.A. Christensen<\/p><\/div>\n

In the 1870s, LDS Church leaders became increasingly worried about the commitment of the second and third generations of Mormons, those born too late to have remembered or witnessed the church\u2019s formative days outside of Utah. In the decade after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, several factors began undermining the cultural foundation of Mormonism in the Rocky Mountains: an increasing number of \u201cGentiles\u201d came to the territory, bringing with them new distractions:money and political influence; the U.S. Congress began enacting anti-polygamy laws, which harmed the entire Mormon community, though only a minority of Mormons engaged in the practice; and The Salt Lake Tribune<\/em> was established mid-decade and quickly became a virulently anti-Mormon publication, holding up church leaders and practices to ridicule. Various measures were employed to buoy up the enthusiasm of Mormonism\u2019s younger generations: Church leaders formed the Mutual Improvement Association, to keep the youth out of trouble and more socially welded to the institutional church; Mormon leaders who were still monogamous were encouraged (read pressured<\/em>) to take a second wife as a show of religious solidarity; and the territory\u2019s first temples \u2014 where the original ceremonies stressed historical grievances from the church\u2019s early years and demanded oaths of fealty \u2014were finally completed. While these measures were being instituted by church leadership, individual members did their own part to strengthen the resolve of the new generations, including pioneer artist C. C. A. Christensen.<\/p>\n

A Danish convert who came to Utah in 1857, Christensen was a farmer and housepainter who became one of Utah\u2019s earliest artists. In 1878 he began touring his Mormon Panorama<\/em>, a series of 23 large paintings depicting early church history, stitched together to form a 175-foot panorama that Christensen toured in communities across Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, accompanied by an oral presentation. He based his paintings on early records and the recollections of first-generation Mormons who had witnessed the events. The panorama became a rallying cry to the younger generation (of which Christensen was a part) to remember where they came from, to expect and embrace persecution, and to hold true to the faith for which \u2014 as the LDS hymn has it \u2014 \u201cmartyrs had perished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-two of the panels are currently on exhibit at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art (the whereabouts of the first of the 23, depicting Joseph Smith\u2019s First Vision, is unknown). Mormon Panorama<\/em> is a selective history, concentrating more on the Mormons as a persecuted people than as a peculiar religion. The first extant panel shows Joseph Smith receiving the gold plates from the angel Moroni, a seminal and sacred event in Mormon history, and another shows \u201cJoseph Smith Preaching to the Indians.\u201d For the most part, however, the panels depict the violence the Mormons encountered as they went from one community to the next along what was then America\u2019s western frontier. In a scene from the church\u2019s infancy, Joseph Smith is seen under a moonlit sky being carried by an angry mob to be tarred and feathered while fellow church leader Sidney Rigdon lies wounded on the ground. The next panel shows women, children and old men being forced out of their homes in Missouri. Other scenes of violence include the massacre at Haun\u2019s Mill, where a Missouri militia fired into a blacksmith shop full of Mormon men, and the \u201cBattle of Crooked Creek,\u201d a skirmish between Mormon and Missouri militias during the 1838 Mormon War. These scenes are frequently paired with images of exodus, where large, orderly groups of Mormons cross broad rivers and frozen ground in search of a new home.<\/p>\n