. Another scene represents the
angel of the Lord giving to the saint, while he is riding, the
banner of the Faith, with a white cross on a red field, which has
ever afterwards constituted the arms of the Pisans, because St Epirus
had besought God to give him a sign to wear against the enemy. Next
to this is another scene of a fierce battle engaged between the saint
and the Pagans, many armed angels fighting for the victory of the
former. Here Spinello produced many things worthy of consideration in
that day when art had not yet the ability nor any good method of
expressing the ideas of the mind in colour in a lively manner. Among
many other things in this composition are two soldiers, who have
seized each other by the beard, and are endeavouring to kill each
other with the naked rapiers which they hold in their disengaged
hands; their faces and all the movement of their limbs show the
desire of victory, their proud spirits being without fear and of the
highest courage. Also among those who are fighting on horseback there
is a finely executed knight who is fastening the head of an enemy to
earth with his lance, the other having fallen backward from his
terrified horse. Another scene shows the saint presented to the
Emperor Diocletian, who is questioning him about the faith, and who
afterwards consigns him to the torture, putting him in a furnace in
which he remains uninjured, whilst the servants who are very ready on
every side are burned in his stead. In short, all the acts of the
saint are shown, to his beheading, after which his soul is carried to
Heaven. The last scene shows the transportation of the bones and
relics of St Petitus from Alexandria to Pisa. The whole work in its
colouring and conception is the finest, most finished, and best
executed of Spinello's paintings, and this is shown by its present
excellent state of preservation, for its fresh appearance excites the
wonder of everyone who sees it. When this work in the Campo Santo was
completed, Spinello painted in the church of S. Francesco, in the
second chapel from the high altar, many stories of St Bartholomew, St
Andrew, St James, and St John the apostles, and he might perhaps have
remained longer at work in Pisa, because his paintings were admired
and rewarded there, but seeing the city thrown into an uproar and
turned upside down through the murder of M. Pietro Gambacorti by the
Lanfranchini, who were Pisan citizens, he once more removed to
Florence wi