The murals of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and the Vision of the Cross in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican, named after the fresco-cycle conceived by Raphael and executed by Giulio Romano, are regarded by scholars as originating from an intense study of antiquity in Raphael's circle, followed by a desire to achieve an historically accurate approach to ancient art. However, Raphael was recognised already by Giorgio Vasari, Ludovico Dolce and Annibale Carracci, not only for his expertise on antiquity, but also for his poetic qualities as an outstanding history painter. Based on the motto anticamente moderno e modernamente antico, with which Pietro Aretino describes Giulio Romano's ideal synthesis of ancient and contemporary art, Michail Chatzidakis analyses the difference between historical and poetic methods of representation in order to determine more precisely the relationship between archaeological precision and poetic creativity in the work of Raphael and his circle in the Sala di Costantino.