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 naivete.  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.]

2.  The Presentation in the Temple, by G.A.  Razzi.  The principal scene is placed in the background, and the little Madonna, as she ascends the steps, is received by the High Priest and Anna the prophetess.  Her father and mother and groups of spectators fill the foreground; here, too, is a very noble female figure on the right; but the whole composition is mannered, and wants repose and religious feeling.

3.  The Sposalizio, by Beccafumi.  The ceremony takes place after the manner of the Jews, outside the Temple.  In a mannered, artificial style.

4, 5.  On one side of the altar, the Angel Gabriel floating in—­very majestic and angelic; on the other side the Virgin Annunziata, with that attitude and expression so characteristic of the Siena School, as if shrinking from the apparition.  These also are by Girolamo del Pacchio, and extremely fine.