The magnificent portraits and the atmospheric, well balanced spaces in the lower picture fields suggest that Ghirlandaio himself painted them. It is likely that Ghirlandaio produced all the plans, but painted only parts of the works himself. At this time his brothers, brother-in-low and several students were working there the young Michelangelo is thought to have been working there as an assistant, though this cannot be proved. It was only possible for Ghirlandaio to produce such an extensive work in four years by using assistants from his large workshop. As in the Last Supper in the church of Ognissanti, Ghirlandaio rigorously integrated into his scenes the way in which the interior was lit through the three windows: the scenes on the left wall are lit from the right, and those on the right wall from the left - as though from the real windows. The overall conception of the chapel has been thought through carefully, right down to the direction of the light. Both stories unfold so smoothly, and in the context of the purest Christian tradition, that it is unnecessary to look for their guiding principle and inspiration outside the Bible and the most elementary religious teaching. On the left wall Domenico frescoed the stories of Mary, on the right the life of St John the Baptist. The vaulting of the chapel contains the Evangelists. These panel paintings, however, are no longer here, they are scattered in different museums. Here Ghirlandaio designed not just the colourful stained glass windows, still at their original location, he also created the altarpiece and its back. The chapel's front wall, in contrast, has three high-pointed arch windows that provide room on either side for three smaller, vertically rectangular pictures, as well as the large tympanum above them. They are placed above each other in three layers and are crowned by a pointed tympanum. Using classical pilasters and entablatures, Ghirlandaio divided the two enormous walls under the wall rib in this Gothic chapel into six horizontally rectangular picture fields. In just four years, between 14, Ghirlandaio and his workshop completed a monumental work that was entirely to Tornabuoni's satisfaction. On 1 September 1484, he and his brother Davide signed a contract with Giovanni Tornabuoni, a man whose wealth, power and noble descent ensured his position at the side of the Medici. His task was now to paint the apsidal chapel of Santa Maria Novella. So before work in the chapel was completed, Ghirandaion was commissioned to carry out another large-scale project. Even before Ghirlandaio had finished the ensemble in the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinità, it was already attracting members of the Florentine upper class who were deeply impressed.
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