How to portray this kingdom of God -- timeless, yet nonetheless needing to unravel like any other narrative, -- in language, in time? Dante goes about it pictorially, writing down his visions, and interspersing them with contemplative discourse. In this way, Paradiso is the most closely associated with the visual arts proper. It is interesting to see how Paradise was depicted by Dante's precursors and by those artists who then went on to realistically depict scenes from Dante's Paradiso. Students should be led to the image collection of Digital Dante, also found in the Library, to examine Dore and Botticelli's drawings. You may want discuss with students to what degree representations are successful or in representing definitive elements of Paradise and to what degree they constitute "good" art? How does the student reaction differ towards previous depictions of the Inferno or Purgatorio? I find that you will eventually reach a productive impasse with your students. Paradise has certain qualities which are inevitably ineffable. This is why Dante relies on intellectual discourse and poetry in this cantica more often than he does in the others. He calls on all of the arts to save him from this problem of representation. There is the music of poetry straining towards divine silence and references to actual pieces of music, as well as the other artistic modes mentioned above.

Five minute oral presentations: Choose the most successful depiction of Paradise among the images in the image collection and tell me why you think it has been successful? Consider color, composition, figural representation, et cetera...