Niccolò Circignani was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the late-Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 or Mannerist

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

 period.

Born in Pomarance

Pomarance

Pomarance is a comune in the Province of Pisa in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 60 km southwest of Florence and about 60 km southeast of Pisa....

, he is one of three Italian painters called Pomarancio

Pomarancio

There are three Italian artists who went by the name of Pomarancio or Il Pomarancio :*Antonio Circignani *Niccolò Circignani *Cristoforo Roncalli...

. His first works are documented from the 1560s, where he painted frescos on the Old Testament stories for the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 Belvedere

Cortile del Belvedere

The Cortile del Belvedere, the Belvedere courtyard, designed by Donato Bramante from 1506 onwards, was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome; its concept and details reverberating in courtyard design, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western...

, where he may have worked alongside Santi di Tito

Santi di Tito

Santi di Tito was an Italian painter of Late-Mannerist or proto-Baroque style, what is sometimes referred to as Contra-Maniera or Counter-Mannerism.-Biography:...

 and Giovanni de' Vecchi

Giovanni de' Vecchi

Giovanni de' Vecchi was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period.Born in Borgo San Sepolcro, He first apprenticed with the painter Raffaello del Colle, then with Taddeo Zuccari, whom he assisted in the interior decoration of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, a major work in the Mannerist...

. He also completed altarpieces for Orvieto

Orvieto

Orvieto is a city and comune in Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff...

 (1570), Umbertide

Umbertide

Umbertide is a town and comune of Italy, in the province of Perugia in northwestern Umbria, at the confluence of the Reggia river and the Tiber. It is 30 km North of Perugia and 20 km South of Città di Castello...

 (1572), Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

 (1573-1577) as well as Città della Pieve

Città della Pieve

Città della Pieve is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about southeast of Perugia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 7,366 and an area of ....

.

He worked with Hendrick van den Broeck

Hendrick van den Broeck

Hendrick van den Broeck, or Arrigo Fiammingo , was a Flemish painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period, active mainly in Italy.-Biography:...

, likely a member of the Flemish family of painters that includes Crispin van den Broeck

Crispin van den Broeck

Crispin van den Broeck was a Flemish painter. He was born in Mechelen. He came from a family of artists, was probably trained by his father, and was the brother of Willem van den Broeck and Hendrick van den Broeck. He worked as a painter, draftsman and engraver. He was enlisted as a master in the...

, in Orvieto Cathedral. He painted frescoes (1568) in the church of the Maestà delle Volte in Perugia

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....

, the Resurrection (1569 in Panicale

Panicale

Panicale is a comune in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 25 km southwest of Perugia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 5,623 and an area of 78.8 km²....

) and an Annunciation (1577, now in the Pinacoteca of Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

).

He painted frescoes (starting 1574) on mythologic themes including a Judgement of Paris, Stories from the Aenid, and others, in collaboration with Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi in the Palazzo della Corgna in Castiglione del Lago

Castiglione del Lago

Castiglione del Lago is a town in the Province of Perugia of Umbria , on the southwest corner of Lake Trasimeno. Orvieto is 59 km south, Chiusi is 21 km to the south west, Arezzo is 56 km to the north west, Cortona is 21 km to the north and Perugia is 47 km to the south...

.

From 1579 he returned to Rome to work with Mattheus Bril and decorated the Sala della Meridiana in the Torre dei Venti (finished before the end of 1580) as well as in the Loggie (1580-83) in the Vatican.
He then became one of the artists favored by the Jesuits. Assisted by Matteo da Siena, he began depicting scenes of Jesuit martyrdom. He was further commissioned such works, depicting church martyrs, with help from Antonio Tempesta

Antonio Tempesta

Antonio Tempesta was an Italian painter and engraver, a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp. He was born and trained in Florence and painted in a variety of styles, influenced to some degree by "Contra-Maniera" or Counter-Mannerism...

 for the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo

Santo Stefano Rotondo

The Basilica of St. Stephen in the Round on the Celian Hill is an ancient basilica and titular church in Rome, Italy. Commonly named Santo Stefano Rotondo, the church is the National church in Rome of Hungary dedicated to Saint Stephen and Saint Stephen of Hungary...

. Here he finally completed over thirty graphic scenes of martyrdom, depicting every gruesome method as if it were an advertisement for a torture chamber.
Visitors like Charles Dickens, expressed horror at the spectacle in this church, calling it a:

damp, mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, ... by reason of the hideous paintings with which its walls are covered. These represent the martyrdoms of saints and early Christians; and such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig raw, for supper. Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out, their ears screwed off, their jaws broken, their bodies stretched upon the rack, or skinned upon the stake, or crackled up and melted in the fire: these are among the mildest subjects.

Circignani's last documented painting, in Cascia, is from 1596.