The long-continued struggle during the 8th and 9th centuries for the place of icons in Church essentialy always led up to the question of the real possible presence of truth of Incarnation in a icon form. The paradox of Christ´s mystery, the Incarnated God, in which Jesus combines in the unity of the person the whole richness of both the human and the divine nature is precisely depicted in His icon.
In the icon the painter expresses a personal mode of being, the only reality not liable to decay or death, which is the person.