Strangely, then, iconic Dutch art owes an essence of its character to religious iconoclasm, which diverted spiritual passion from sanctuaries to parlors and countrysides.
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.