first done, anybody _did_ like it.

You know the story of Joachim and Anna, I hope? Not that I do, myself,
quite in the ins and outs; and if you don't I'm not going to keep you
waiting while I tell it. All you need know, and you scarcely, before
this fresco, need know so much, is, that here are an old husband and
old wife, meeting again by surprise, after losing each other, and being
each in great fear;--meeting at the place where they were told by God
each to go, without knowing what was to happen there.

"So they rushed into one another's arms, and kissed each other."

No, says Giotto,--not that.

"They advanced to meet, in a manner conformable to the strictest laws
of composition; and with their draperies cast into folds which no one
until Raphael could have arranged better."

No, says Giotto,--not that.

St. Anne has moved quickest; her dress just falls into folds sloping
backwards enough to tell you so much. She has caught St. Joachim by his
mantle, and draws him to her, softly, by that. St. Joachim lays his
hand under her arm, seeing she is like to faint, and holds her up. They
do not kiss each other--only look into each other's eyes. And God's
angel lays his hand on their heads.

Behind them, there are two rough figures, busied with their own
affairs,--two of Joachim's shepherds; one, bare headed, the other
wearing the wide Florentine cap with the falling point behind, which is