The intention, precise date, and correct translation of
this canon are disputed, but it appears to have focused on the inappropriate
veneration of images and not on the images themselves. The Latin reads: Placuit
picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus
depingatur, which is most correctly translated as “There shall be no
pictures in churches, lest what is reverenced and adored be depicted on the
walls.” Because it is doubtful that narrative images would have comprised
images that were either too sacred to be depicted or attracted veneration, it
seems most likely that the images in question were frontal portraits of saints
or of Christ that might become the objects of homage or prayer. Yet, because
the precise meaning of “picturas” is ambiguous, it is possible that the
canon may have prohibited any kind of figurative art on church walls. (Robin M.
Jensen, "Figural Images in Christian Thought and Practice before ca.
500," in A Companion to Byzantine Iconoclasm, ed. Mike Humphreys
[Brill's Companion to the Christian Tradition 99; Leiden, Brill: 2021], 135-36)
Further Reading:
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
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