Dr Piers Baker-Bates

Professional biography

My own research interests are diverse and have previously been concerned with art and architecture at Rome during the period traditionally referred to as the ‘High Renaissance'. I am completing a book that will discuss the previously neglected Roman career of Sebastiano del Piombo and in particular the importance to his career of patrons from outside the city. As a result I have now become interested in discovering how Italian works of art were diffused throughout Europe in the sixteenth-century, with particular attention given to patterns of cultural interchange with Spain. My research concerns not only artists and works of art from Italy that came to Spain but also Spanish artists and works of art that were indirectly influenced by Italy.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

‘The idiosyncratic model of Sebastiano del Piombo', Bulletin of Renaissance Studies, XXIII, 1, October, 2005, pp.1-6

‘A Re-discovered Drawing by Sebastiano del Piombo and the Dating of his Christ carrying the Cross', Paragone, LVI, 64 (669), November 2005, pp.63-67

‘Between Italy and Spain: Cultural Interchange in the Roman Career of Sebastiano del Piombo', Renaissance Studies, 21, 2, April 2007, pp.254-65

‘The Ubeda Pietà: Sebastiano del Piombo and Ferrante Gonzaga between Italy and Spain', Art Site and Spectacle Studies in Early Modern Visual Culture The Melbourne Art Journal, 9/10, 2007, pp.34-43.

‘The Bishop and the Artist: the quest for patronage in High Renaissance Rome', in Art and Identity in Early Modern Rome, ed. Jill Burke and Michael Bury, Ashgate, May 2008

‘A portrait of Cardinal Pompeo Colonna: the rival and imitator of the Medicean Caesars', in Papers of the British School at Rome, 76, 2008, pp.741-42

Forthcoming

‘Antonio Salamanca: a Spanish friend of Sebastiano del Piombo' in the Atti of the Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Sebastiano del Piombo

Sebastiano del Piombo between Italy and Spain, publisher still to be confirmed

Reviews

Anne J. Cruz (ed.), Material and Symbolic Circulation between Spain and England, 1554-1604. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, Renaissance Studies, 23, 5, November 2009, pp.741-42

‘Sebastiano del Piombo (Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 8 February-18 May 2008)', Renaissance Studies, 23, 1, February, 2009, pp.108-20

Recent Conference and Research Papers include

February 2010 The cloister life of the Emperor Charles V: art and ideology at Yuste. Paper delivered at the Graduate Seminar, History of Art Department, University of Cambridge

December 2009 Suae Maiestati quam commendatissum: the sixteenth-century Colonna cardinals and Spain. Paper delivered to the members of the Requiem Projekt at the Humboldt University, Berlin

September 2009 Beyond Rome: Sebastiano del Piombo as a Painter of Diplomatic Gifts. Paper delivered at the European Visual Culture Seminar, University of Melbourne, Australia

May 2009 Beyond Rome: Sebastiano del Piombo as a Painter of Diplomatic Gifts. Paper delivered at the University of Pisa, Italy

April 2009 Co-organised with Carol Richardson (and spoke at) a session entitled Renaissance Intersections, annual conference of the Association of Art Historians, Manchester Metropolitan University

March 2009 Questi Cosi Pietose: Sebastiano del Piombo and Spain Paper delivered at the panel The taste for Italy in sixteenth-century Spanish art patronage, annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America, Los Angeles, United States

December 2008 The cloister life of the Emperor Charles V: art and ideology at Yuste. Paper delivered at the Reformation Institute Seminar, University of St Andrews

July 2008 Evidence for Possession of Libraries as a means of exploring the plurality of Spanish Identities at Rome before the Sack. Paper delivered at the ‘Evidence of Reading. Reading the Evidence' Conference, Institute of English Studies, University of London

July 2008 Spain's only Michelangelo (?): the Christ on the Cross at Logroño. Paper delivered at the Society for Renaissance Studies National Conference 2008, Trinity College Dublin.

16 June 2008 Sebastiano del Piombo and his reputation in Great Britain. Paper delivered at the Renaissance Seminar, National Gallery, London

April 2008 Antonio Salamanca: a Spanish friend of Sebastiano del Piombo. Paper delivered at the Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Sebastiano del Piombo at the Complesso di San Michele, Rome

27 February 2008 Beyond Michelangelo: new perspectives on Sebastiano del Piombo's career at Rome. A lecture delivered at the British School at Rome in conjunction with the Sebastiano del Piombo exhibition at Palazzo Venezia.

April 2007 Domi Diu Detinuit: Relations between Agostino Chigi and Sebastiano del Piombo. Paper delivered at the panel The Roman World of Agostino Chigi, annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America, Miami Beach, United States.

July 2006 Privilege and Honour: Ferrante Gonzaga and Sebastiano del Piombo between Italy and Spain. Paper delivered at the United Kingdom Society of Renaissance Studies, University of Edinburgh.

April 2005 Between Italy and Spain; cultural interchange in the Roman career of Sebastiano del Piombo. Paper delivered at Revisioning High Renaissance Rome, organised by the AHRC research project Court Culture in Early Modern Rome, University of Edinburgh.

April 2005 The idiosyncratic model of Sebastiano del Piombo. Paper delivered at the panel Workshop and Showroom in High Renaissance Rome, annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America, University of Cambridge

Forthcoming

8-10 April 2010 Nostro Sebastiano Pittore: Sebastiano del Piombo and the Venetian Community at Rome. Paper to be be delivered at the panel Agents, Brokers, and Intermediaries: the circulation of art works in the early modern period (1500-1650), annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America, Venice.

15-17 April 2010 ‘A stupendous Picture': a discussion of the sources for the art of Morales and Ribalta and the British Response. Paper to be delivered at the session Insular Preconceptions? The arts of Iberia and Latin America and their reputation in Britain, annual conference of the Association of Art Historians, Glasgow University

12-14 May 2010 Art, religion and society in the Hispanic Baroque: the case of Luis de Morales and Juan de Ribera. Paper to be delivered at the Religion in the Hispanic Baroque: the first culture and its legacy conference, University of Liverpool

6-18 July 2010 Paper to be delivered at a panel entitled Outside Venice: Marketing Beyond the Renaissance City at the Society for Renaissance Studies national conference 2010, University of York

Grants and Awards Received

November 2009 Grant received from the Society for Renaissance Studies to fund postgraduate bursaries for the Roman Questions workshop at Dulwich that I organised on December 12 2009.

April 2009 With two colleagues I received a grant of monies donated to the Open University by Banco Santander to be used for research on topics related to Spain. This money was used to fund a two week research trip in September 2009.

November 2008 Awarded fellowship at the Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte, Florence taken up in May 2009

Conference and Workshop Organisation

Roman Questions Workshop, Dulwich Picture Gallery, December 12, 2009

Articles of Faith: A Seminar on Material Religion, Thursday March 11, 2010, The Open University, Milton Keynes. Co-organised with Jessica Hughes.