“Because both statues and paintings are artistic renderings of the image of Jesus ...
there is essentially no difference between them.”
But is not a statue a “graven” image, whereas a painting is not?
This is why the Orthodox have those great Icons (that’s what they are called, isn’t it?) - mosaic or other flat images of Saints, Jesus, etc.
Oh please, nobody yell at me, I am not equating Saints with Jesus, just trying to give examples.
Is coinage banned? (I'm being silly.)
But --- hmm, "graven" --- is there a difference whether a statue is literally carved in stone or wood, shaped and molded from clay or wax or some other soft modeling material, bronze-cast, porcelain-cast, plaster-cast? What if it's welded?
For that matter, what if it's made of pixels?
Interestingly, I don't know of any Christian group that objects to statuary in cemeteries.
But I could be wrong. What do I know?
The important thing is that "things" are not God or "gods" to us, and that in all things, may God be glorified. .