14 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. I. of tlie decapitation, and. the carriage of the Saint’s body to Alexandria. In the first compartment of the upper course nothing remains hut fragments of the fresco of the Saint before Diocletian and the appearance of the Saviour 1 to S. Ephesus. In the second the Lord, appearing to the left, the saint, kneeling in the midst of his officers, receiving the banner from the archangel on horseback, and the battle, are depicted. In the third the saint is brought before the praetor of Sardinia, and taken to the stake; the flames slay the executioners, and .Ephesus is decapitated. In such stirring scenes as these, Spinello’s art no doubt shone to advantage; and even now that the form of the compositions is no longer traceable, his power and boldness are to be distinguished. In the battle scene and by the fire of the stake where the soldiers of the guard fall back from the flames which respect the saint, there is a hardihood of action and an attempt at foreshortening, here and there not unworthy of admiration. Nor was Spinello so exclusively attentive to expressing passion in the heads of combatants and guards, hut that in the face of Ephesus he could show the influence of tenderer feelings. The fragments of the Campo Santo are, how ever, most advantageous to Spinello, as they prove that he had the Giottesque quality of lively and transparent colour which is, indeed, far more apparent in the series due to his industry than in the neighbouring one of the sorrows of Job so long assigned to Giotto. The records of the Campo Santo may he consulted for the fact that Spinello received from Parasone and his successor Como de Calmulis, 150 florins of gold for the three frescos of S. Ephesus, and 120 florins for the three of S. Potitus, and that the whole labour was completed in March 1392 (Pisan style). 2 From Pisa Spinello probably proceeded to Florence, where, in 1400 and 1401, he is known to have painted altarpieces for S.S. Croce and Fclicita; but he had re- 1 Whose form is now obliterated. 2 See the originals copied in Forster, Beitriige, ub. sup. p. 118. Spinelli is there called, “olim Luce” or the son of tjxe late Lucas.
