While he himself is a proponent of the very errant theory that the golden calf in Exodus 32 is a pedestal, Dana M. Pike does admit that
. . . it was a relatively small
step from viewing these young bulls as pedestals for Yahweh to viewing
them as representations of Yahweh or El or Baal. (Dana M. Pike, “Israel’s
Divided Monarchy, Part 1 (930-841 BCE),” in A Bible Reader’s History of the
Ancient World, ed. Kent P. Jackson [Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern
Studies, Brigham Young University, 2016], 217, emphasis in original)
On the evidence that the golden calf in Exodus was not a pedestal for Yahweh but instead, a representation of Yahweh, see, for e.g.:
Norman C. Habel vs. the "Pedestal" Interpretation of the Golden Calf
Susan Niditch on the Golden Calf being a representation of Yahweh