Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

Not to make the form of a man, even for decoration: Not to make the form of a man from any object — whether from metals, whether from wood, or stone, or anything else — and even for decoration, as it is stated (Exodus 20:20), “Do not make with Me (Iti).” And they, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Rosh Hashanah 24b), “Do not make Me (Oti,” which can be spelled with the same letters as Iti), meaning to say, do not make a replica of that form — being the body of man — about which I wrote in My Torah (Genesis 1:26), “Let us make man in Our image.” And the intention of the verse is from the angle of the intellect that He gave in him. And that which it stated, “in Our image,” about the intellectual side of man is because all intellect is in Him, blessed be He. But there is no other comparison between Him, Blessed be he, and any creature (that preceded its matter) of His creatures, God forbid. And the negative commandment of “You shall not make a statue” is that we not make any form that will be worshiped, [whereas] this prohibition is specifically about the form of a man — that we should not make it at all, even for decoration. And this is to distance idolatry.

The laws of the commandment — for example, what is the law of one who makes the form of a man lacking one or more limbs; and the rest of its details — are elucidated in the third chapter of Avodah Zarah. And in Tractate Sanhedrin 7b, they said that this negative commandment [also] includes other topics. However the main negative commandment is about that which we have mentioned. And so [too], did they say in the Mekhilta. (See Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 141:7.)

And [it] is practiced in every place and at all times by males and females. And one who transgresses it and makes the form of a man — even for decoration — violates the commandment of the King, but there is no liability for lashes.