"The author is ultimately saying, 'Jesus was married, therefore he could not be divine,' " Madsen said. "In fact, we (LDS Church members) find the opposite to be true; if he in fact were married, and a father, it is one of the evidences he was divine."

One museum lecturer, Springville Museum of Art director Vern Swanson, said the Holy Grail is not Mary Magdalene, as Brown declared, but that it is eternal marriage between a man and a woman.

In Teichert's painting, Christ holds out his pierced palms to Mary as if to stop her as she opens her arms to embrace him.

Magleby said Teichert offered "a very singular eye and hand to her works."

"There is an incredible economy of paint in her works," he added. "They are almost painterly sketches of her subjects, as if she doesn't want to overwork it, as some were in the age just prior to her. Her figures and the way she paints them don't allow you to forget it's just paint. It's a minimalist approach that allows you to access the process she's going through."

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