iconoplast means one who creates images, idols, or symbols, typically as opposed to an iconoclast who destroys them. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
ICONOPLAST — [Noun] One who creates images, idols, or symbols, especially in a religious or artistic context. From icono- (from Greek eikōn, "image") and the Ancient Greek πλάστης (plástēs, "moulder, shaper"). Unlike an iconoclast, who shatters the sacred forms, or an iconodule, who venerates the finished work, the iconoplast is the quiet antecedent: the hands that give matter to devotion. It is the rasp of a chisel coaxing a saint from limestone, the patient burnishing of gold leaf onto a gesso halo, and the mixing of ochre and egg to fix a god's gaze upon the world—a humble, material act of faith in the perilous contradiction of fashioning the eternal from the transient. Between dogma and devotion, the iconoplast gives intangible belief its tangible form.
noun
- One who creates images, idols, or symbols, typically as opposed to an iconoclast who destroys them.