The prohibition of imagery (Iconoclasm) by the Eastern Church in the eighth and ninth centuries (and, after the Reformation, by Protestant sects) was a reaction against the widespread heresy of "real presence" the belief that the image of God or of Christ had itself an aspect of divinity.

WSJ: Enlightenment on an Intimate Scale | The Adinatha Temple at Ranakpur | Masterpiece by James S. Ackerman