Annotation

Mormon "Sunstone" Sculpture 1844 Symbol of "the times and seasons of the last days" A radiant face rising out of a bank of clouds and a pair of hand-held trumpets adorn this limestone capital from a Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, IL. It is one of 30 hand-carved, two-and-a-half-ton capitals that crowned pilasters encircling the temple before it burned down in 1848. Temple architect William Weeks probably based his designs for these "sunstones" on directions from church founder Joseph Smith. Carved temple stones symbolized "the times and seasons of the last days" when heavenly beings--shown by the faces of the sunstones--are said to have visited Smith in a dream. Notes 4' high, 6' wide, 18" thick