Botticelli’s illustrations of dante’s paradiso

H Webb

OAI: oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/294676 • DOI: 10.17863/CAM.41781

This essay explores Botticelli’s illustrations of Dante’s Paradiso as literary readings of the poem. I propose that Botticelli takes up one of Dante’s most challenging invitations to the readers of this canticle, the invitation to imagine the possibility of “conjoined vision,” a mode of vision that Dante describes in the Paradiso as the privilege of the blessed. Botticelli enables viewers to reflect on their own modes of vision through a series of techniques in his illustrations that construct viewership in ways that are remarkably faithful to the modes of Dante’s Paradiso. These techniques include the illustration of a plural gaze, the affective presentation of multiple foci of devotion, and the opportunity to see or read the poem, aided by Botticelli’s illustrations, in a synchronous mode. The essay examines the presence of these techniques in the illustrations for Paradiso 5, 20, and 24 in particular, suggesting new ways to conceptualize the relationship between Botticelli’s illustrations and Dante’s text.