Earnest DeWald, a well-known scholar of Western art, here traces the development of the iconography of the Ascension from its earliest type through to the Gothic form; and illustrates by means of this development the evolution of Christian art up to the Gothic period, showing the manner in which the Eastern influence modified in various ways the types current in western art. The article includes sketches and photographs of the works used to support his argument, which shows the ways in which such an approach to the history of art can illuminate the larger context of inter cultural contact in which such art is created.