brother-in-law and master, with figures of the Evangelists and Doctors of the Church. The chapel was enclosed with a marble balustrade in 1661. Ghirlandaio frescoes The side walls of the chapel were frescoed by the Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio between late 1477 and September 1478, at the same time as Benedetto da Maiano was working on the sculpture. An inscription on the tomb by the latter alludes to their simultaneous presence in 1475. Upon the sarcophagus decorated with naked genii runs the inscription attributed to Giovanni Battista Cantalicio, the author of laudatory verses in honour of the Saint Gregory printed in Venice in 1493: However, although it has been argued that the last line of the epitaph proves that Ghirlandaio painted the frescoes not later than 1475, this is not conclusive, as the subject and the composition had probably been settled from the beginning. Entries exist in the ledger of the works of the collegiate church of certain sums of money paid to Benedetto da Maiano for the epitaph of Santa Fina, under the dates of 29 May 1490 and 13 December 1493. The frescoes are Ghirlandaio's first known major commission, and show the first traces of his mature style. According to Saint Fina's hagiography, she had devoted her late life to a mystic devotion, which eventually led her to paraplegia. One day St. Gregory appeared to her to announce that she would be soon liberated by the illness in exchange for external life. On the day of her funeral, several miraculous events occurred, including the healing of her nurse, who suffered paralysis in her hand. The fresco on right wall of the chapel depicts, in the main field, St. Gregory the Great, supported by red-winged cherubim, appearing to Santa Fina to announce her death. Saint Fina, flanked by her nurses Beldia and Bonaventura, is praying while lying on a wooden plank. According to the legend, when she died the palette became covered with violets, which are typical March flowers at San Gimignano. The scene is a domestic interior with white-washed walls and a coffered ceiling. It is characterized by bright colours. The room is painted using geometrical perspective, and has a door which opens on a garden with rose bushes and a window through which can be seen a distant citadel. A rat under the bench in the background is a reference to Saint Fina's martyrdom (she was eaten