Just as an aside ...
I recently visited the Church in Malbis, AL. It's in a lot of generic travel brochures. (Unfortunately I can't take pics inside to demonstrate what I'm about to try to say.)
It has the reputation of having had amazing mosaic icons, but some were damaged in a hurricane. I read that they had an iconographer restore the building.
When I got there, the inside has been painted with huge western-style art, scenes of Christ's life. It looks very Catholic to me. Very 3-dimensional, realistic, and skillfully done.
I was sitting near the front, and there is a scene of (iirc) Christ feeding the 5000. Within it is a man, a soldier I think, sitting near the front of the painting, much larger than life. He's muscular, sitting on the ground, and his garment rides up on his leg, and the muscles of his leg are depicted in detail. It struck me that that painting leads the eye and places images in one's mind that one does not want to be contemplating during a Church service. It is in VERY stark contrast to the iconic stained glass window in our Church, which depicts Christ nearly unclothed on the Cross, and yet does not at all lead the mind in noticing anything remotely like the painting.
That's a pretty graphic point (maybe - it was in person at least) but it gives me a tremendous contrast possible between western art and iconography.
I always loved Western religious art, and have collected a few very expensive books over the years featuring western art. I never had a real appreciation for iconography, by comparison, and tended to ignore photos of icons when they shared the same books.
But having learned such great differences, and I did used to pray as a child with a picture of Jesus - well, others here have explained the differences I have learned much better than I can.
It's not that western art is all bad, but it doesn't have the focus and rules of iconography, that I have found are very much there for a reason.
This is the picture I had as a child, btw. I never liked that the eyes look away, and in icons they do look at you ...