A poem, a collection of antiquities and a Saviour by Raphael: a case-study in the visualization of sacred history in early seventeenth-century Rome.

The article focuses on a poem among the unpublished manuscripts that belonged to the Jesuit and Cardinal Sforza Palavicinio now in the Biblioteca Casanatense. The poem seeks to demonstrate how art compensates for man's limited perception of the natural and supernatural world. Nature has condemned man to perceive everything that lies beyond the soul's confines of the body through five senses. His sphere of perception is narrowly restricted in the present. This confinement blinds man to the traces of celestial beauty that God has hidden in even the most vile of creatures. Luckily, ingenious arts can imitate nature's vigor to render things. Painting, prone to none of the defects that hamper sculpture and writing, is the best helper for the confined spirit. It is so powerful that greatest care should be taken when choosing a subject-matter. The poem then proceeds with a description of the painting, an exaltation of its painter and a conceited comparison between the painting's subject-matter and divine creation.