An good article written by John Armstrong Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department of Melbourne University
over at MercatorNet entitled : The sublime message of Christmas
on the effect of the Incarnation of Christ on art. Given that the pagan viewed art as entailing physical characteristics with the god on the one hand and the Jewish ideal of God as eternal, omnipotent and omniscient unable due to limitation of material objects to capture anything remotely that depicts God. With God taking on human nature, He took on a material image and therefore both the material and spiritual could now be depicted at least artistically.