Sentence:  If , on the other hand , they opted for representation , it had to be representation per se - representation as <WSD>image</WSD> pure and simple , without connotations ( at least , without more than schematic ones ) of the three-dimensional space in which the objects represented originally existed . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface