| Post: | Reader in Art History |
| Location: | Arts A A175 |
| Email: | M.O-Malley@sussex.ac.uk |
| Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 7242 |
| UK: | (01273) 877242 |
| International: | +44 1273 877242 |
Biography
Dr Michelle O'Malley holds degrees in the History of Art from Newton College of the Sacred Heart (BA), Boston University (MA), and the Warburg Institute, University of London (PhD). She came to Sussex in 1998 to head the Centre for Research in the History of Art from the position of the Head of Education for Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She became the Director of the Centre for Arts Research Support in 2001 and was the Director of Research in the School of Humanities 2003 - 2008.
Role
Reader in Art History.
Research
Dr Michelle O'Malley works on issues of production, value and visual exchange concerning altarpieces and frescoes and other material objects in Renaissance Italy. As a member of the Material Renaissance Project ('The Material Renaissance: Cost and Consumption in Italy 1300-1650', Sussex 2000-2004, AHRB and Getty funding), she considered the pricing methods and production strategies of Pietro Perugino and one of her current projects arises from this work; it investigates the impact of demand on the production practices of a group of highly regarded painters working in the decades around 1500, including Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and Perugino. In 2005-06 she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum (Sussex-V&A Exchange) and another work in progress explores questions of the commission, production, cost and meaning of female footwear in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy. The work contributes to research on the Museum's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries and she is presently co-editing, with Peta Motture, a special issue of Renaissance Studies to coincide with the re-opening of the Galleries in 2009. Conference Organisation Value, Production, Consumption and the Issue of Quality in Renaissance Italy: a one-day symposium for invited participants at the V&A, June 2006. The Material Renaissance conference, with Evelyn Welch, at the University of Sussex, March 2003. Other Research-related Activities Trustee of the Association of Art Historians (from 2006); Member of the AAH Publications Committee (from 2007). Member of the AHRC Peer Review College. Member of the Council of the Society for Renaissance Studies (1998-2006); Fellowship Officer (2003-2006), Secretary (2003-2004).
Dr O'Malley is the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, 2008-2010.
Teaching
Postgraduate Supervision
2007- : Anthony McGrath, "The Book as Symbol in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Painting".
2007- : Angelica Groom, "Images of 'Exotic' Animals in Early-modern Italian Court Art"
Selected publications
2010
‘A Pair of Little Gilded Shoes: Production, Cost and Meaning in Renaissance Footwear’ in Renaissance Quarterly Volume 63, Awaiting Publication
‘Finding Fame: Painting and the Making of Careers in Renaissance Italy’ in Renaissance Studies Volume 24 pp. 9-32
Re-Thinking Renaissance Objects: Design, Function and Meaning, Awaiting Publication
2007
Perugino and the Contingency of Value Evelyn Welch and Michelle O'Malley, ed., in The Material Renaissance Manchester University Press pp. 106-130 ISBN 9780719076572
Quality and the Pressures of Reputation: Rethinking Perugino in Art Bulletin Volume 89 pp. 676-696
The Material Renaissance (edited with Evelyn Welch) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 296 pp. ISBN 9780719076572
2006
Perugino’s Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis for Santa Maria dei Servi, Perugia (with Carol Plazzotta, Ashok Roy and Raymond White and Martin Wyld) in National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 27 pp. 72-95
2005
Altarpieces and Agency: The Altarpiece of the Society of Purification and its ‘Invisible skein of relations’ in Art History Volume 28 pp. 416-441
The Business of Art: Contracts and the Commissioning Process in Renaissance Italy New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 358 pp. ISBN 0-300-10438-3
2004
Exchanging Subject Ideas: Painters, Clients and the Commissioning Process around 1500 Stephen J. Campbell and Stephen J. Milner, ed., in Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation in the Italian Renaissance City CUP pp. 17-37 ISBN 0-521-82688-8
2003
Commissioning bodies, fee negotiations and price structures for altarpieces in 15th- and early 16th-century Italy Marcello Fantoni, Louisa Matthew, and Sara Matthews-Grieco, ed., in The Art Market in Italy, 15th - 17th centuries/ Ill Mercato dell'arte in Italia, secc. xv-xvii Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini Editore pp. 163-180 ISBN 8-882-90577-2
1999
Memorising the New: Using Recent Works as Models in Italian Renaissance Commissions A.W. Reinink and J. Stumpel, ed., in Memory and Oblivion: Proceedings of the XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Publishers pp. 803-810 ISBN 0-792-34213-5
1998
Late Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Painting Contracts and the Stipulated Use of the Painter’s Hand Alison Wright and Eckart Marchand, ed., in With and Without the Medici: Art and Patronage in Florence 1450-1530 Aldershot: Ashgate pp. 156-178