Minerva Teichert: THE HOUSE OF THE WORLD

THE STORY: The House of the World represents the prophet Lehi’s dream from the Book of Mormon.  Lehi saw a tree whose fruit, representing the love of God, gave him great joy, and he wanted his family to eat it also.  His wife Sariah and his sons Sam and Nephi came, but his sons Laman and Lemuel did not.

Lehi records, “And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. . . . And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building. . . . And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.”¹

ANALYSIS: Lehi stands at one end of the iron rod, the tree of life behind him, with the white fruit of the tree of life in his hands.  Since his arm is outstretched as “an extension of the iron rod, which symbolizes the word of God, Lehi demonstrates that a prophet’s words are from the Lord.”²

Lehi's wife Sariah kneels in the center, clinging to the rod.  Perhaps she has fallen to her knees because two of her sons are missing.  Her head is bent and her arm reaching for what is lost. Nephi is shown holding to the rod and reaching out to his mother, while Sam grips the rod behind him.

Laman and Lemuel are crossing the river in a boat to the great and spacious building.  That beautiful building is shown as only a shell or a façade; the windows and doors show blue sky, revealing that there is nothing inside the building.  This represents Nephi’s interpretation that the building is the “vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men.”³

Instead of illuminating the tree of life while the pride of the world is in darkness, Teichert reverses typical imagery.  “Lehi’s small group and much of the tree of life are shadowed while the building glows alluringly.  Its golden statues convey the status of its throngs of people, and its glory seems to surpass that of the tree. As in real life, the blessings of faith and obedience are sometimes not as immediately apparent or attractive as the entrapments of Satan.”⁴

PERSONAL IMPACT: I love how Teichert has centered Sariah in the middle of the painting.There are few stories about women in the Book of Mormon, and the ones that we have are told through a man's eyes. I love how this female painter thought about the impact that this vision and the Lord's commandments had on Sariah and that she literally centered her faithful but heartbroken reaction to her sons' going astray. A woman still being faithful despite heart-breaking losses--Minerva Teichert opened my eyes to this view of Lehi and Sariah's story.

I'm very grateful for that.

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1. 1 Nephi 8:19, 26-27
2. John W. Welch and Doris R. Dant, The Book of Mormon Paintings of Minerva Teichert (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997) 60
3. 1 Nephi 12:18
4. John W. Welch and Doris R. Dant, The Book of Mormon Paintings of Minerva Teichert (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997) 60