POMARANCIO, ANTONIO CIRCIGNANI, known as il. - b. ca. 1580, d. ca. 1640 (Baumgart places the limits of his life between 1570 and 1630): documentary evidence exists up to 1629. Son of Niccolò, from whom he inherited the nickname.
Scant are the details provided by biographers regarding the painter, whose personality was long confused, until recent criticism, with that of his father Niccolò (a claim refuted) on the basis of sources, the *Crocifissione* in the Galleria Estense, formerly in S. Bartolomeo, Modena, commissioned in 1620. The stylistic physiognomy of the painter has taken shape in aspects distinct from those of a generic left-handed follower of his father’s manner; P. in fact shows that he had learned Caravaggist elements which he employed even in the frescoes and the altarpiece of the chapel of S. Alberto in the church of S. Maria in Traspontina in Rome, work carried out during the painter’s maturity. Under the pontificate of Urban VIII, he worked on the decoration of the church of S. Pietro in Rome, and in 1629 he was paid for the *Soprallotta* with the *Tradizione delle chiavi* for the Chapter room. In a letter of June 1626 to Cardinal Rivarola, he lists the works he had completed, among which are commissions not only in Rome but also in Florence (in the porticoes of S. Maria Nuova), Narni, Terni, Amelia, Spoleto, Assisi, Sezze, Modena, and Urbino; and in addition, numerous drawings for prints. Among his known works, besides those already mentioned, are: in Rome, the frescoes with *Storie di Maria* in the last chapel on the left in S. Maria della Consolazione; the vault of the first chapel on the right in S. Andrea della Valle; a chapel in the Palazzo Altemps; in Città di Castello, a *Concezione* in the church of S. Francesco, an *Incorporazione di Maria* in S. Domenico, and the high altar in the church of Ognissanti.
BIBL. F. Baumgart, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, XXVII, p. 232 (with bibliography); O. Pollak, *Die Kunststätigkeit unter Urban VIII.*, II, Berlin 1931, pp. 38, 72, 74, 582-84; A. Venturi, s. V. ENOCH. Ital., XXVII, p. 791; R. Longhi, *Ultimi studi sul Caravaggio*, in *Proporzioni*, I (1943), pp. 32, 57 n. 78, fig. 76; R. Pallucci, *I dipinti della Galleria Estense*, 1945, p. 227. Maria Vittoria Brugnoli