POMARANCIO, Antonio Circignani, Called Il. - Born ca. 1580, died ca. 1640 (Baumgart places the limits of his life between 1570 and 1630): documentary records exist up to 1629. Son of Niccolò, whose nickname he inherited.
The biographers' information about the painter is scanty, and his personality was confused, until the most recent criticism, with that of his father Niccolò (to whom, on the basis of the sources, the Crucifixion in the Galleria Estense, formerly in S. Bartolomeo in Modena, commissioned in 1620, has been restored). The painter's stylistic physiognomy came to be formed in aspects different from those of a generic mannerism in his father's manner; P. in fact shows that he had learned Caravaggesque elements, which he also uses in the frescoes and in the altarpiece of the chapel of St. Albert in the church of S. Maria in Traspontina in Rome, which happened in the period of the painter's maturity. He worked, under the pontificate of Urban VIII, on the decoration of the church of St. Peter in Rome, and in 1629 he was paid for the overdoor with the Tradition of the Keys for the room of the Chapter. In a letter of his from June 1626 to Cardinal Rivarola, there is the list of the works he had completed, among which appear works done, besides in Rome, 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 the known works, besides those already mentioned, are: in Rome, the frescoes with Stories of Mary, 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 Conception in the church of S. Francesco, a Coronation of Mary in S. Domenico and the high altar in the church of Ognissanti.
BIBL.: sources
Maria Vittoria Brugnoli