...of very great price? And when they are uncovered, first great ecclesiastical solemnities are held, with various chants and diverse sounds. And in the uncovering, the great multitude of peoples who gather there immediately throw themselves to the ground, adoring it and praying to that for which such a painting is figured, for the recovery of lost health and for eternal salvation, no differently than if that deity were there present in life. This happens in no other science or other human work; and if you say that this is not the virtue of the painter but the proper virtue of the thing imitated, one will reply that in this case the mind of men can be satisfied while lying in bed, and not go to laborious and dangerous places, nor on pilgrimages, as is continually seen done. But if indeed such pilgrimages are continually undertaken, who moves them without necessity? Surely you will confess it to be that image, which all the writings that could figure such a deity in effigy and in virtue cannot make. Therefore it seems that this deity loves such a painting, and loves whoever loves and reveres it, and delights in being adored more in that than in any other figure imitated of her, and through it grants graces and gifts of health, according to the belief of those who gather in that place.

[9] How painting embraces all the surfaces of bodies, and extends into them.

Painting extends only to the surfaces of bodies, and its perspective extends to the increase and decrease of bodies and of their colors, because the thing that moves away from the eye