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Sculpting the Face of the Savior
By Steven Lloyd Neal, MD
When we wept at President Hinckley’s
funeral, who were we weeping for? For President Hinckley? For him
to be reunited with his eternal companion, his family, the prophets
before him — what a happy and glorious end to a life well
lived!
No, we were weeping for ourselves.
We were weeping for our loss, for our young children, and unborn
grandchildren who would never know him. Our constant prayers as
a church to sustain and uphold the prophet have helped keep him
here for almost 98 years. We knew it couldn’t last forever.
Yet the realization did little to soften the actual blow when the
time came.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has left a legacy so rich that we could
fill endless books of adulation. However, the most important book
that President Hinckley wrote was in our individual hearts. And
I believe the single most important achievement of his ministry
was to lead our hearts to Christ. There was no end to his words
of encouragement to lead us to the Savior. But more importantly,
we sensed his love for us and wanted to obey his direction.
In the foreword to his book, Standing for Something, President
Hinckley wrote, “We need a new emphasis on honesty, character,
and integrity. As we build into the fiber of our individual lives
the virtues that are the essence of true civilization, so will the
pattern of our times change. The question that confronts us is:
Where shall we begin?
He answered this question with the
first chapter of his book, which is about love — what he called
“the lodestar of life.” Citing the Savior’s reference
to the final judgment when the King says we shall inherit his kingdom
because we by proxy, “fed, clothed, and visited Him,”
President Hinckley wrote:
One of the greatest challenges we
face in our hurried, self-centered lives is to follow this counsel
of the Master, to take the time and make the effort to care for
others, to develop and exercise the one quality that would enable
us to change the lives of others---what the scriptures call charity
… best defined, charity is that pure love exemplified by
Jesus Christ. It embraces kindness, a reaching out to lift and
help, the sharing of one’s bread, if need be. (Standing
for Something, by Gordon B. Hinckley, pg. 6.)
President Hinckley was for us, a living
lesson of the Savior’s love. That is exactly how he was so
effective in helping us change ourselves.
The finished sculpture, “Other Sheep I Have
...”
My family too received
an heirloom-lesson from President Hinckley that helped me come unto
the Savior in a unique spiritual experience — to attempt a
likeness of the Savior in marble.
I began with a clay maquette sculpture, Jesus the Shepherd walking
out to gather His sheep. In his left arm I placed a lamb; his right
I left open and outstretched. From the verse in Third Nephi 15:17
I entitled it, “Other Sheep I Have”.
Finishing the clay surface of the maquette
in my studio.
As I was struggling with
the specifics of how to create the Savior’s physical likeness,
the body mass and structure, and the facial composition and details
— I was blessed to have input from some of the senior apostles.
Looking at the half-finished maquette, they said, “The
Savior is physically powerful as well as spiritually powerful.
It looks like you used your own physique for a model.” (It
was true. Surgeons aren’t known for their bulging muscles.)
We spent some time discussing the features
of His face — whether or not to have an ethnic nose, the thickness
of his lips, his eyes, no fork in the beard, the length of his hair,
and so on. We concluded that above all else, it should be a “good,
strong face.” Lacking a live model, the final image for the
Savior’s face came from the one in my own heart.
I finished the clay version and took the model made from the mold
that the bronze was made to Pietrasanta, Italy where I had learned
to carve marble.
Smaller statue now made into bronze, from which to pattern and carve
the larger marble statue.
I shall never forget the feelings of
my heart that summer. I felt something of the anticipation of the
Brother of Jared as he strived to see the emerging face of the Savior
through the veil, even as my hands worked. Some days my heart burned
as if in a testimony meeting.
Artist using the air hammer to rough out the details
of the marble statue, in Pietrasanta, Italy.
A year later I returned to report to
the Brethren on my efforts with the finished 600-lb. marble statue
and a smaller bronze cast from the maquette. I was very relieved
to find it was favorable. What I didn’t expect however, was
that President Packer wanted the First Presidency to see it as well.
President Hinckley was such a kind man that he would never say anything
bad about someone else’s art creation. President Packer knew
this and therefore presented the statues of the Savior for me so
he could get his true feelings concerning them.
Following his presentation to the First Presidency, President Packer
had me come to the West Conference Room in the administration building
where the statues were still positioned. I quote from my journal:
We pushed open the door to the boardroom to see President Packer
seated there alone. “President Hinckley liked your piece,”
he said. “It would be a perfect thing to place in the MTC
to inspire the missionaries. He especially liked the lamb,”
he said while patting the bronze wool on the smaller statue.
“President Hinckley liked the
face of the bronze statue more than the marble carved face because
the nose needs to be thinner.” (I purposely left the frontal
processes of the maxilla broader as it made the face more rugged
on the marble version. Mistaken anticipation!) President Packer
continued, “However, I told President Hinckley that we have
a plastic surgeon here that can make noses thinner, so that wouldn’t
be a problem.”
President Packer also told me that
marble needed to be removed from between the fingers and the whole
statue placed on a pedestal high enough to allow eye contact with
visitors.
Installing the statue, “Other Sheep I Have…”
in the lobby of the administration building of the Missionary Training
Center.
Throughout this experience
I felt a peace and a witness that our prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley,
was familiar with the Savior — that he knew the Savior. Certainly,
by their fruits ye shall know them. Truly he was a Christ-like man
who helped us all see the Savior a little clearer. And when I finally
meet my Savior and Redeemer, I hope I recognize his face. We thank
thee, O God, for a prophet!
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