the Tribunal of Eight, contract in hand. Whereupon the Tornabuoni
showed that these arms had been placed in the most conspicuous and most
honourable part of the work; and although the others exclaimed that they
were invisible, they were told that they were in the wrong, and that
they must be content, since the Tornabuoni had caused them to be placed
in so honourable a position as the neighbourhood of the most Holy
Sacrament. And so it was decided by that tribunal that they should be
left untouched, as they may be seen to-day. Now, if this should appear
to anyone to be outside the scope of the Life that I have to write, let
him not be vexed, for it all flowed naturally from the tip of my pen.
And it should serve, if for nothing else, at least to show how easily
poverty falls a prey to riches, and how riches, if accompanied by
discretion, achieve without censure anything that a man desires.

[Illustration: DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO: THE VISION OF S. FINA

(_San Gimignano. Fresco_)]

But to return to the beautiful works of Domenico; in that chapel, first
of all, are the four Evangelists on the vaulting, larger than life; and,
on the window-wall, stories of S. Dominic, S. Peter Martyr, S. John
going into the Desert, the Madonna receiving the Annunciation from the
Angel, and many patron saints of Florence on their knees above the
window; while at the foot, on the right hand, is a portrait from life of
Giovanni Tornabuoni, with one of his wife on the left, which are both
said to be very lifelike. On the right-hand wall are seven scenes--six
below, in compartments as large as the wall allows, and the last above,
twice as broad as any of the others and bounded by the arch of the
vaulting; and on the left-hand wall are also seven scenes from the life
of S. John the Baptist. The first on the right-hand wall is the
Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple, wherein patience is depicted in
his countenance, with that contempt and hatred in the faces of the
others which the Jews felt for those who came to the Temple without
having children. In this scene, in the part near the window, are four
men portrayed from life, one of whom, old, shaven, and wearing a red
cap, is Alesso Baldovinetti, Domenico's master in painting and in
mosaic. Another, bareheaded, who is holding one hand on his side and is
wearing a red mantle, with a blue garment below, is Domenico himself,
the master of the work, who portrayed himself in a mirror. The one who
has lon