ould they allow any one else to decorate it, lest it should pass out
of their hands.

Now another noble family, called the Tournabuoni, when they heard of
the fame of the new painter, greatly desired to have a chapel painted
by him in order to do honour to their name and family.

Accordingly they went to the Ricci family and offered to have the whole
chapel painted and to pay the artist themselves. Moreover, they said
that the arms or crest of the Ricci family should be painted in the
most honourable part of the chapel, that all might see that the chapel
still belonged to them.

To this the Ricci family gladly agreed, and Ghirlandaio was set to work
to cover the walls with his frescoes.

'I will give thee twelve hundred gold pieces when it is done,' said
Giovanni Tournabuoni, 'and if I like it well, then shalt thou have two
hundred more.'

Here was good pay indeed. Ghirlandaio set to work with all speed, and
day by day the frescoes grew. For four years he worked hard, from
morning until night, until at last the walls were covered.

One of the subjects which he chose for these frescoes was the story of
the Life of the Virgin, so often painted by Florentine artists. This
story I will tell you now, that your eyes may take greater pleasure in
the pictures when you see them.

The Bible story of the Virgin Mary begins when the Angel Gabriel came
to tell her of the birth of the Baby Jesus, but there are many stories
or legends about her before that time, and this is one which the
Italians specially loved to paint.

Among the blue hills of Galilee, in the little town of Nazareth, there
lived a man and his wife whose names were Joachim and Anna. Though they
were rich and had many flocks of sheep which fed in the rich pastures
around, still there was one thing which God had not given them and
which they longed for more than all beside. They had no child. They had
hoped that God would send one, but now they were both growing old, and
hope began to fade.

Joachim was a very good man, and gave a third of all that he had as an
offering to the temple; but one sad day when he took his gift, the high
priest at the altar refused to take it.

'God has shown that He will have nought of thee,' said the priest,
'since thou hast no child to come after thee.'

Filled with shame and grief Joachim would not go home to his wife, but
instead he wandered out into the far-of fields where his shepherds were
feeding the flocks, and there