Paradise 

Editor: So, here we have "Paradise", a tempera painting that, according to what I could find, might be attributed to the Limbourg Brothers during the medieval period. It's incredibly detailed. All those figures crammed in! I am struck by how, despite the heavenly theme, it feels very grounded, almost earthly. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Grounded is an interesting choice of words! For me, miniatures like this often feel like windows into another world. Imagine the patron holding this book, suddenly transported to this vision of paradise. And paradise wasn't just fluffy clouds back then. It was a social hierarchy, neatly ordered, everyone knowing their place in the divine plan. Do you notice how carefully the Limbourg brothers render the different groups, from the angelic musicians at the bottom to Christ and the Virgin at the top? Editor: Yes! It’s all so precisely rendered. The level of detail must have been astounding at the time! So you're saying that even in paradise, there's still a structure, a class system, perhaps? Curator: Precisely! Though hopefully with better real estate. And a harp, naturally. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If we were to imagine our own paradise today, what would it look like? What objects would we include, what kind of order - or disorder - would we want to create? Editor: That’s an interesting thought. It definitely would be a very different scene today! Thinking about it that way brings it all into a whole new perspective for me. Curator: Exactly! That's the magic, isn't it? To make those old paradises speak to our own ideas of what paradise could, or perhaps should, be.