Well, since the example code you posted has an
tag with absolutely no attributes, I'd say that not rendering would be what we'd expect. After all, how can you render an image when you haven't said what the image is?
More generally, my first suspicion would be that you had failed to code the correct image path.
Note, however, that JSF has an image tag of its own (<h:graphicImage>) and that's what I would usually recommend using.
In fact, I really don't recommend putting any raw HTML in a JSF View Template. There's almost always a JSF equivalent which knows more about the JSF environment and helps preserve one of JSF's original design intentions - that View Rendering should be portable and not limited only to HTML.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.