The distinction between icastic and phantastic imitation, concepts borrowed from Plato, is also important in Mazzoni's work. Icastic imitation refers to the recreation of something based in reality – a simulation of a real person or the creation of a character based on a real person is icastic imitation. Phantastic imitation is the imitation of something completely the artist's imagination.Montgomery, 8 This distinction would play an important role in Mazzoni's On the Defense of the Comedy of Dante, in which he would argue that the work, being allegorical and based in a divine vision, was icastic mimesis because it imitates something "real." This was meant to counter arguments by writers such as Castravilla who dismissed Dante’s work as lacking in verisimilitude and even claimed that the comedy was not poetry at all, as it was simply the recounting of a vision.Hathaway, 69–70 Under Mazzoni’s definitions, these were not valid criticisms, as poetry was essentially mimesis made "persuasive" by the use of craft or art.
