Iconography is one of the most important ways in which the body is affirmed and understood within a Christian context. This is because of iconography’s inseparable relationship with the incarnation. Both affirm unambiguously that the salvation, regeneration, transfiguration, and deification of everyone and everything depend upon God’s taking on human nature. This, of course, includes God’s taking on a human body.
Simply put, without the incarnation, and therefore without the body, the work of creation is incomplete and the divine economy becomes ineffectual.