An icon should not be viewed as a picture, or exact historical recreation of the fact, for the icon represents the inner content and meaning, rather than an event or a person itself. External gestures or details can provide vast information on that-time history and culture; however, they often fail to answer the basic question - What for? Why? Why God comes to the world? Why He comes as a man? What does it mean?
The answers to these questions are deeper, than our capabilities to understand. So it is not enough merely to explain, show, or illustrate. In visual sacral art it is important to reflect unexploredness, immensity, incomprehensibility of the Divine acts. A visual symbol is capable to reveal, expose, and declare by far more than a documentary photo or realistic image. Leaving aside a momentary emotion, a symbol can present a moment as the event, and a man as the Person.