The same, Fifth Chapter.
On Holy Images — translated by Mary H. Allies
The divine beauty is not set forth either in form or comeliness of design or colouring, but is contemplated in speechless blessedness, according to its virtue. So do painters transfer human forms to canvas through certain colours, laying on suitable and harmonious tints to the picture, so as to transfer the beauty of the original to the likeness.
_Commentary._—You see that the divine beauty is not set forth in form or shape, and on this account it cannot be conveyed by an image (οὑκ εἰκονίξεται): it is the human form which is transferred to canvas by the artist’s brush. If, therefore, the Son of God became man, taking the form of a servant, and appearing in man’s nature, a perfect man, why should His image not be made? If, in common parlance, the king’s image is called the king, and the honour shown to the image redounds to the original, as holy Basil says, why should the image not be honoured and worshipped, not as God, but as the image of God Incarnate?
Translated by Mary H. Allies. Edition opa.patristics.john-of-damascus.on-holy-images.en.