him, Giovanni promised to give 200 more. Domenico therefore set hard to the work, and did not cease until the fourth year, when he had entirely finished it—this was in the year 1485.[1] Giovanni was thoroughly satisfied and much pleased with the whole; he admitted that he considered himself well served, and confessed ingenuously that Domenico had gained the additional 200 ducats, but added, that he would be glad if the painter would content himself with the price first agreed on. Ghirlandajo, who valued glory and honour much more than riches, immediately remitted all the remainder, declaring that he had it much more at heart to give Giovanni satisfaction, than to secure the additional payment for himself.
Giovanni Tornabuoni afterwards caused two large escutcheons to be executed in stone, the one for the Tornaquinci, the other for the Tornabuoni: these he had erected on the two pilasters outside the chapel; and in the lunette he placed other armorial bearings belonging to different branches of the same family, divided into various names and exhibiting different shields:—the escutcheons, that is, besides the two already named, of the Giachinotti, Popoleschi, Marabottini, and Cardinal!. Finally, Domenico painted the altar-piece; and beneath an arch in the gilt frame work, Giovanni caused a very beautiful tabernacle for the sacrament to be placed, as the completion of the whole work. In the pediment of the tabernacle he then commanded a small shield, a quarter of a braccio only, to be emblazoned with the arms of the owners of the chapel, the Ricci, namely.
But the best was to come; for when the chapel was opened to view, the Ricci sought their arms with a great outcry, and at last, not seeing them, they hastened to the magistrates and laid their contract before the Council of Eight. Thereupon the Tornabuoni proved that they had placed the arras of the Ricci in the most conspicuous and most honourable part of the whole work, and although the
- ↑ In a Manuscript Diary by Luca Landucci, which is cited by Manni, there is a notice to the effect that this chapel was re-ojjened to the public, on the 22nd December, 1490. The same date is also found on an ancient copy of the work preserved in Santa Maria Novella, whence it is to be inferred, that 1485 was the date of the commencement, rather than that of the completion of this vast work. —Rumohr, Ital. Forsch., vol. ii. p. 281.
