POMARANCIO, CRISTOFORO RONCALLI, known as Il Pomarancio. — Painter, born at Pomarancio near Volterra in 1552, died in Rome on 14 May 1626.
A pupil of Niccolò Cirignani, also known as Il Pomarancio, C. R. appears as a typical exponent of late Mannerist painting in central Italy between the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Baglione, he began working in the Vatican Logge during the pontificate of Gregory XIII. Between 1583 and 1585 he was paid for work in the Old Hall of the Quirinal, alongside others including Pasquale Cati. Further payments for fresco work in St Peter’s in favour of P. are recorded between 1590 and 1606. In that year, however, until 1610 he was active in the Holy House of Loreto. The frescoes on the vault of the sacristy of the Treasury remain his masterpiece. A letter from him to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (later Urban VIII) dated 1618 concerns one of his paintings: The Battle of Jacob with the Angel. While in the panels depicting the Stories of St Lawrence at Spello (church of S. Lorenzo) P. follows Cirignani, in the Loreto frescoes references to the school of Raphael and Correggio achieve a convincing coherence and pictorial-decorative measure. Also worthy of note are: St Agnes (Naples, church of the Gerolimini); the Penitent Magdalene (Rome, formerly the Barberini Gallery); St Palazia (Milan, Brera); the Nativity (Genoa, San Siro); the Holy Family (Rome, Palazzo Spada); St Domitilla (Rome, SS. Nereo e Achilleo), etc.