Dr Susan May

Supervision: PhD, MA, BA

Module leader:

Level 7: Discourses in Art and Design

Level 7: Research in Practice

Level 6: Practice-Led Dissertation

Other teaching:

Level 7: Final Presentation

Level 5: Art in Theory and Writing

Renaissance visual culture, relics and rituals
Papal and cardinalate patronage and politics
History of art and design, c.1400 to contemporary
Historiography of art history

SEDA-accredited Community of Practice around Research Supervision, Birmingham City University (BCU), 2017

Doctor of Philosophy; awarded BCU (formerly University of Central England), 2006

Master of Arts with Distinction; awarded University of Central England, 1996 (winner of Emma Jessie Phipps prize)

Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction; awarded University of Central England, 1993

BA Open University modules, 1985-91; all with Distinction

Birmingham & Midland Institute
Association for Art History
British School at Rome
College Art Association of America
Renaissance Society of America
Society for Renaissance Studies
The Pre-Raphaelite Society
The Victorian Society

BA (Hons) Fine Art
MA Fine Art
MA Art and Design: Interdisciplinary Practices
MA Arts and Education Practices
MA Arts and Project Management
MA Contemporary Arts China
PhD

While Sue’s doctoral subject was a single major act of artistic patronage by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, her recent research has returned to consider his broader role in the decades leading up to and including his pontificate. Pope for only 26 days, taking the name of Pius III (d.1503), Francesco Piccolomini has understandably been overshadowed by his famous uncle, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II (d.1464). Nonetheless, a cardinal for 43 years, member of the reform commissions of three pontiffs and first Protector of England (as well as, less explicitly, Germany), the younger Piccolomini’s contribution to the church in Rome and beyond is ripe for appraisal. While scholarly papers have addressed certain aspects of his life, a full biography has long been called for (Strnad, 1964-6, 350). Current research is leading towards such a monograph on the patronage and politics of Francesco Piccolomini. As a member of the Sacred College, Piccolomini was in an influential position which he used to further the causes of humanism and ecclesiastical renewal. Research is on-going to establish the extent to which he wittingly contributed to international political strategy. This will contribute to ‘the important task of linking micro-political interaction to macro-political outcomes’ (McLean, 2007, 31). The late fifteenth century marks a period when the concept of national identity was gaining momentum, influenced by the geo-historical writings of Pius II. A case study on Pius’s nephew will demonstrate how divided loyalties were exacerbated as a consequence. Loyalty to god; to sovereign; to ethnicity; to political union; to family: these oppositional tensions—to be profiled in the cardinal’s biography—are still acutely problematic in today’s globalised society.

Completions

‘Pinturicchio’s frescoes in the Sala dei Santi in the Vatican Palace: authorship and an iconological interpretation of the ‘Egyptian’ theme’, 2015 (DoS)
‘The fresco decoration of the Oratorio dei Buonomini di San Martino: piety and charity in late fifteenth-century Florence’, 2016 (DoS)
‘-becoming-#langscape-[fold here] intra-rupting landscape, language and the creative act’, 2018 (DoS)

Ongoing

‘Thy British Tempé – The Creation of Hagley Park (1692-1773)’ (DoS)
‘Fashion, footwork and fantasy: the relationship between fashion, costume for ballet, and body image in the late eighteenth century: London and Paris 1760-1790’
‘Gay Place: A quiet piece of work in progress: An investigation into the precarious nature of bodily identity as experienced in the production of contemporary art’ (DoS)
‘Against the grain: Leonard Jay and the Birmingham School of Printing’
‘To what extent were Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ stained glass window designs for St Philip’s cathedral in Birmingham influenced by the art of Sandro Botticelli?’ (DoS)

Examining:

External Examiner of Course: BA History of Art, Single & Joint Hons, University of Birmingham, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, 2011-12
External Examiner of Courses: Critical and Historical Studies modules, BA (Hons) Fine Art and BA (Hons) Fine Art and Art History, Kingston University, 2017-2021
External Examiner of MPhil: ‘The development and significance of grisaille in fifteenth-century painted altarpieces of the Burgundian Netherlands’, University of Birmingham, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, 2016
Internal Examiner of PhD: ‘Writing//painting: l’écriture feminine and difference in the making’, Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, BCU, 2013
Internal Examiner of PhD: ‘The supernatural sex: Women, magick and mediumship - assembling a field of fascination in contemporary art’, Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, BCU, 2017
Internal Examiner of PhD: ‘Creating a new urban culture: A critical study of the educational significance of the Shanghai Biennale’, Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, BCU, 2017
Internal Examiner of PhD: ‘Diffracting Painting: “Mattering” as Reconfiguration of its Making, Understanding and Encountering’, Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, BCU, 2017
Internal Examiner of PhD: ‘South Staffordshire enamels: Can investigation through practice reveal their lost craftsmanship and how can this re-emergent knowledge be interpreted in contemporary making?’, Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, BCU, 2018

Publications

Susan J May, ‘The Piccolomini library in Siena cathedral: questions of patronage and iconography considered in the light of Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini’s humanism and theology’, Papers of the British School at Rome, Rome, Vol LXXII, 2004, 369-70

Susan J May, ‘The Piccolomini library in Siena cathedral: a new reading with particular reference to two compartments of the vault decoration’, Renaissance Studies, Vol 19, No 3, 2005, 287-324

Susan J May and George T Noszlopy, ‘Reflections on patronage, form, iconography and politics in Pinturicchio’s “Fossi altarpiece”’, Arte Cristiana, Milan, Part I, Vol XCV, No 842, Sept-Oct 2007, pp343-360; Part II, Vol XCV, No 843, Nov-Dec 2007, 401-10

Susan J May, ‘Christian Neoplatonism and early reform thought in the manuscripts and narrative murals of the Piccolomini Library’, The Book Collector, Vol 57, No 3, 2008, pp371-399

Susan J May, ‘Pienza: Relics, Ritual and Architecture in the City of a Renaissance Pope’, in Foundation, Dedication and Consecration Rituals in Early Modern Culture, M Delbeke and M Schraven (eds), Brill: Leiden, 2012, 99-127.

Susan J May and George T Noszlopy, ‘Cosimo Rosselli’s Birmingham altarpiece, the Vallombrosan Abbey of S. Trinita in Florence and its Gianfigliazzi Chapel’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. LXXVIII, Dec.2015, 97-133.

Susan J May, ‘Mobilising mob mentality: the miracle of the relic of Saint Andrew’, Zetesis Vol 2, No. 1, Twice Upon a Time: Magic Alchemy and the Transubstantiation of the Senses, 2015, 42-53.

Susan J May, 'Establishing the Tudor dynasty: the role of Francesco Piccolomini in Rome as first Cardinal Protector of England', Royal Studies Journal, Special Edition 'Princes of the Church: Renaissance Cardinals and Kings’, Winchester University Press, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2017, pp103-40

Susan J May, ‘Dress and its significance in the decorative mural cycle of the Piccolomini Library (1502-8), Siena Cathedral’, in Culture Costume and Dress: Proceedings of the 1^st International Conference, 10-12 May 2017. Anne Boultwood and Sian Hindle (eds), Gold Word Publishing (e-book), 2018, pp55-64, ISBN: 978-1-909379-26-8

Susan J May, ‘Pruning and propagating civic behaviour: three feste in and around Santa Maria della Vittoria in Mantua, 1495-97’, in Architecture, Festival and the City, Jemma Brown, Christian Frost, Raymond Lucas (eds), London: Routledge [forthcoming 2018]

Book review

Emily O’Brien, Pope Pius II (1458-1464) and the Crisis of the Fifteenth-Century Papacy, Toronto: Toronto U.P., 2015, reviewed by Susan J May, The English Historical Review, Oxford University Press, Vol. 132, Issue 556, 1 June 2017, pp692–94.

Conference papers

‘The Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral - an iconographical study’, The British School at Rome, February 2003

‘“Meanings” of Books: the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral’, 31^st Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians, University of Bristol, March 2005

‘Tools of ambition - artistic patronage and nepotism: the Piccolomini of Siena’, 54^th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, April 2008

‘From patronage to politics: Pinturicchio’s “Fossi altarpiece”’ Birmingham City University Research Conference, June 2009

‘The relic of Saint Andrew, Pius II and the founding of Pienza’, 36^th Annual Conference of the Association of Art Historians, University of Glasgow, April 2010

‘The book collection of the first Cardinal Protector of England and his role as humanist conduit to the early Tudor court’, Resurrecting the Book, Birmingham Library, November 2013

‘Mobilising mob mentality: the miracle of the relic of Saint Andrew’, ‘Twice Upon a Time: Magic Alchemy and the Transubstantiation of the Senses’, Birmingham School of Art, June 2014

‘Henre the seuenth of the house of Lancastre and ... the noble Princess Elyzabeth of the house of Yorke: Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini’s part in the consolidation of a new dynasty’, ‘Renaissance Cardinals: diplomats and patrons in the early-modern world’, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, March 2015

‘Establishing the Tudor dynasty: Francesco Piccolomini’s role in Rome as first Cardinal Protector of England’, 61^st Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Humboldt Universität, Berlin, March 2015

‘Political spin in a Mantuan altarpiece: A Hungarian connection in Mantegna’s Madonna della Vittoria?’, Sixty-Third Annual Meeting, Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, April 2017

‘Dress and its significance in the decorative mural cycle of the Piccolomini Library (1502-8), Siena Cathedral’, Culture, Costume and Dress, Birmingham City University, May 2017

‘Pruning and propagating civic behaviour: three feste in and around Santa Maria della Vittoria in Mantua, 1495-97’, Architecture, Festival and the City, 14^th Architectural Humanities Research Association International Conference, Birmingham City University, November 2017

‘The Cardinal of Siena, the Bishop-Prince of Brixen and the Fugger of Augsburg: the question of the nature and extent of their inter-relationships’, Society for Renaissance Studies 8^th Biennial Conference, University of Sheffield, July 2018

‘Trading on fear of purgatory: a mass printed ticket to Tudor popularity’, Dregs, Dross and Debris: The Art of Transient Print conference, Centre for Printing History and Culture, Liverpool John Moores University, July 2019

‘“The common practices of an imperfect world”: the apparent paradox of Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini’s thought and deeds’, ‘Reading the Reformations’, Annual Conference of the European Reformation Research Group, Newman University, Birmingham, August 2019

BCU Academia

Pienza: Relics, Ritual and Architecture in the City of a Renaissance Pope

Cosimo Rosselli's Birmingham Altarpiece, the Vallombrosan Abbey of S. Trinita in Florence and its Gianfigliazzi Chapel

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