JOHN DAMASCENE
(676 AD – 749)
‘You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb” (Deuteronomy 4:15). How can we make an image of the invisible One? How can we represent the features of that which is not like anything else? How can we represent that which has no quality, no height, no limits? What form are we going to assign to that which is without form? What then do we do with the mystery?
If you understand that the incorporeal One became flesh for you, then it would be evident that you can make his human image. 
Since the invisible One became visible by taking on flesh, you can fashion the image of him whom you saw. He who has neither body nor form nor quantity nor quality, who goes beyond all grandeur by the excellence of his nature, he, being of divine nature, took on the condition of a slave and reduced himself to quantity and quality by clothing himself in human features. Therefore, paint on wood and present for contemplation Him who desired to become visible.
Never will I cease to honour matter through which my salvation was wrought…! Because of this I salute all matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power…. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable. God has made nothing despicable….
