Artist's biography
Born in Pomarance from a family originally from Bergamo, after training in Florence, around 1575 he moves to Siena, where he paints an altarpiece: Madonna and Child with saints Anthony and Agatha (1576, Opera Museum of Siena's Cathedral) and some scenes inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses (Palazzo Bindi Sergardi, Siena) for Ippolito Agostini.In 1582 he arrives in Rome. His first important work, two frescoes for the oratory of the Holy Cross in the church of San Marcello al Corso representing events of the confraternity of the Cross (1583-1584). These frescoes, together with those belonging to the cycle representing the Passion of Christ and Saint Paul's Life, respectively in chapels Mattei and Della Valle of Santa Maria in Aracoeli (1585 - 1590), still belong to 16th-century mannerism.On the other hand, the paintings representing several episodes of saint Filippo Neri's life in Santa Maria in Vallicella (1596 - 1599) are mainly characterised by realism and dramatic contrasts between light and shadows. This is a new phase in Pomarancio's artistic development, together with the altar decoration produced between 1598 and 1599, in which Saint Domitilla with Saints Nereus and Achilleus is represented (church of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Rome). Here, a tendency towards classicism can be found.For the 1600 Jubilee, Pomarancio paints the Baptism of Constantine and the portrait of Saint Simon in the transept of the basilica of Saint John Lateran (around 1599), and draws the mosaics of the Clementine Chapel in the basilica of Saint Peter (around 1600). In both cases, he works under the direction of Cavalier d'Arpino.In his later years, he produces the cycles of frescoes of the new Treasure Room (1605-1610) and the dome (1609-1615) of the basilica of the Holy House of Loreto.