The Middle Ages, contrary to its name, were a dynamic period of innovations. Throughout this period, the visual arts were used to communicate important messages to the public as well as wealthy private patrons. Various media were used to disseminate the ideas. Even though the sense of decorum has changed, the purpose of these moralistic images of religious figures has remained the same. Art was, as it still is, an extremely useful and powerful tool for religious and political progress. The two pieces considered in this article were created from scenes from the life of Christ. Themes of the Old and New Testaments were frequently used in medieval art to convey important messages to a largely illiterate population, display the wealth of a few individuals, and create feelings of patriotism and support for the monarch by connecting them to divinity. The two pieces come from different media and probably different forms of patronage. To be analyzed in this article are an illuminated manuscript page (fig 1) and an ivory diptych (fig 2). There are several similarities, as well as differences throughout the works. I will describe each piece then continue to compare and contrast them, this will help to facilitate a better understanding of the Middle Ages through works of art. The illuminated manuscript page (fig 1) was a popular art form throughout the Middle Ages. Illuminated manuscripts, ornate manuscript pages executed on an animal skin called vellum, were popular throughout the Middle Ages. The majority of these surviving colored pages were produced in the Romanesque period, at the request of ecclesiastics and emperors. Made on vellum, an animal skin in ink. Charlemagne, arguably the most important emperor of the Carolingian dynasty...... middle of paper ...... eaten in different eras, styles as well as mediums, they still possess many similarities. It is a testament to the complex communications that occurred in the Middle Ages between all forms of creation.bibliography1. JA Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (New York: B. Franklin, 1969),2. Heinrich Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire (Oxford: Blackwell, 1957), 823. “Carolingian Art,” accessed March 5, 2011, http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/carolingian-art .htm.4. Consular Diptychs and Christian Ivories,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (1918): 8, accessed February 3, 20115. Georg Swarzenski, “The Gothic Ivory Diptych,” Fogg Art Museum Bulletin 10 (1947)6. Peter Barnet and Nancy Wu, The Cloisters, Medieval Art and Architecture (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005