Pomarancio (Cristoforo Roncalli) (ca. 1553–1626)

• Cristoforo Roncalli was an Italian painter.
• He was one of the three painters known as Pomarancio or Il Pomarancio.
• Roncalli was born in Pomarance, a small town near Volterra.

• He first studied in Florence.

• By 1575 he had moved to Siena, where Ippolito Agostini commissioned him to paint an altarpiece for the cathedral, a Virgin and Child with St. Anthony and St. Agatha.

• Around 1578, Roncalli relocated to Rome, where he was commissioned by the Compagnia di Santa Caterina to paint two scenes from the Life of St. Catherine.

• He established his career in Rome with frescoes in the oratory of the Crocefisso at San Marcello al Corso. 

• In 1588, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca.

• In 1597 Pope Clement VIII embarked on two major public commissions, for the decoration of St. Peter's Basilica and Saint John Lateran. 

• Roncalli was commissioned to paint the Baptism of Constantine and St. Simon in the transept of San Giovanni in Laterano and to prepare designs for the mosaic decoration in the Clementine Chapel, St Peter’s, where he collaborated with Giuseppe Cesari. 

• In 1605, Roncalli won a commission for a major cycle of frescoes in the new sacristy of the basilica of Santa Maria at Loreto.

• Roncalli was named a Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ in 1607.

• He died in Rome in 1626. 

• His pupils included Alessandro Casolano, and his son Ilario Casolano.

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