On the left hand (i.e. the right as we face the high altar) is the History of the Virgin; on the opposite side, the History of St. John the Baptist. The various cycles relating to St. John as patron of Florence will be fully treated in the last volume of Legendary Art; at present I shall confine myself to the beautiful set of subjects which relate the history of the Virgin, and which the engravings of Lasinio (see the "Ancient Florentine Masters") have rendered well known to the lovers of art. They cover the whole wall and are thus arranged, beginning from the lowest on the left hand. 1. Joachim is driven from the Temple. 2. The Birth of the Virgin. 3. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. 4. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary. 5. The Adoration of the Magi (this is very much ruined). 6. The Massacre of the Innocents. (This also is much ruined.) Vasari says it was the finest of all. It is very unusual to make this terrible and pathetic scene part of the life of the Virgin. 7. In the highest and largest compartment, the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. Nearly contemporary with this fine series is that by Pinturicchio in the Church of S. Maria del Popolo, at Rome (in the third chapel on the right). It is comprised in five lunettes round the ceiling, beginning with the Birth of the Virgin, and is remarkable for its elegance. About forty years after this series was completed the people of Siena, who had always bees remarkable for their devotion to the Virgin, dedicated to Her honour the beautiful little chapel called the Oratory of San Bernardino (v. Legends of the Monastic Orders), near the church of San Francesco, and belonging to the same Order, the Franciscans. This chapel is an exact parallelogram and the frescoes which cover the four walls are thus arranged above the wainscot, which rises about eight feet from the ground. 1. Opposite the door as we enter, the Birth of the Virgin. The usual visitor to St. Anna is here a grand female figure, in voluminous drapery. The delight and exultation of those who minister to the new-born infant are expressed with the most graceful _naïveté_. This beautiful composition should be compared with those of Ghirlandajo and Andrea del Sarto in the Annunziata at Florence;[1] it yields to neither as a conception and is wholly different. It is the work of a Sienese painter little known--Girolamo del Pacchio. [Footnote 1: This series, painted by Andrea and his scholars and companions, Franciabigio and Pontormo, is very remarkable as a work of art, but presents nothing new in regard to the choice and treatment of the subjects.]