Abstract

Rendering an alternative world where to project human existence, beyond the constraints of Earthly reality, has been a major component of religions that acknowledge the existence of surrogate dimensions to be inhabited. In the text, we suggest looking at Metaverse with a spiritual gaze, understanding this new collective (digital) space as just another version of those promised lands that all religions have rendered with frescoes and epic narrations. In this sense, the idea of a Metaverse is very old, although its technological manifestation is a recent creation. In the text we analyse Dante’s metaverse as is represented in the "Assunzione della vergine" by Francesco Botticini and "Dante and his Comedy" by Domenico di Michelino; the "Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch; up to contemporary artist and techno animism.