Spinello Aretino’s Altar of Ss Philip and James

At the very end of the 14th century, the painter Spinello di Luca Spinelli (1350 ca. - 1410 ca.), usually known as Spinello Aretino (from Arezzo) was commissioned to make a frescoed altarpiece for the Dominican church of his native city. The altar itself no longer exists; it was dedicated to the Apostles Philip and James, whose feast is traditionally kept today, along with St Catherine of Alexandria. The fresco, however, remains, and is in relatively good condition. (All images from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0)

The two Apostles in the center.

On the left side, St James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, heals many of the sick.

His martyrdom, in which he was thrown off the roof of the temple, and then, when found to be still alive, hit in the head with a fuller’s club. Spinello or his patrons either did not know, or chose to ignore, the tradition that St James was in his 90s at the time of his martyrdom.

On the opposite side, two episodes of the legendary acts of St Philip, as told in the Golden Legend of Bl. Jacopo de Voragine. Philip is in Scythia, where he is brought by the pagans before a statue of Mars, and ordered to sacrifice to it. A dragon emerges from the statue’s base, killing the son of the priest in charge of the sacrifice, and the two local officials who were keeping the Apostle in chains, while making everyone else present sick with its breath. Philip promises to remedy these ills if the pagans break the statue and replace it with a Cross; when they do, he heals the sick, raises the three dead persons, and banishes the dragon to an uninhabited desert. He then comes to Hierapolis, where he successfully combats the heresy of the Ebionites, establishes the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and is finally crucified by the infidels.

In the upper section, the mystical marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria...

and her martyrdom.