School of Culture and Communication

Qualifications

PhD (UniMelb); BA (Hons.) (UniMelb)

Biography

Christopher Marshall completed his University of Melbourne PhD dissertation on the Neapolitan Baroque painter Domenico Gargiulo in 1994 before taking up a lectureship at Melbourne University in the following year. Among the many awards he has received are two years funding from the Australian Research Council, Small Grant Award, the Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellowship, for a period of study at the Centre for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, a Visiting Senior Lecturing Fellowship at the Department of Art and Art History, Duke University and a Senior Fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

His 2001 publication, Macmillan Interpreting Art: A Guide for Students is a standard text for Australian secondary art education and was shortlisted for the 2002 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing. Further recognitions of Christopher Marshall's curriculum and teaching achievements include a two-time nomination for the Australian Awards for University Teaching (Humanities and the Arts) and the inaugural University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts Teaching Award received in 2003.

Christopher Marshall teaches undergraduate units and supervises graduate students in the areas of Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary art; art curatorship, collecting and the art market; and the history and philosophy of museums.

Research strengths

Christopher Marshall has published widely on Neapolitan Baroque art, collecting and the market including Mapping Markets in Europe and the New World (Brepols: 2006); The Art Market in Italy (15th-17th Centuries) (Pannini, 2002); The Journal of the History of Collecting (2000); The Burlington Magazine (2004) and the Art Bulletin (1998). He is also the author of Macmillan Interpreting Art: A Guide for Students (Macmillan, 2001), Macmillan Interpreting Art: Teacher CD-Rom (Macmillan, 2002)and A Deep Sonorous Thing: The Newman College Collection of Art (University of Melbourne, 1993). His current research projects include forthcoming contributions to Making Art History, Elizabeth Mansfield (ed.), Routledge, 2006; The Economic Lives of Italian Baroque Painters, Richard E. Spear and Philip Sohm (eds.), 2006; and three longer-term book-length studies on current issues in museology, another on the marketing, collecting and display of art in seventeenth century Naples and a third on displaying sculpture in museums from the Renaissance to today.

Research projects

Painting and Public in Seventeenth Century Naples

Naples was the second most populous city of Baroque Europe. It was a major Mediterranean trading center forming a vital cultural bridge between the Spanish Habsburgs, the aristocracy, the emerging middle classes and the massed populace who rose to enact a bloody rebellion in 1647. It also nurtured one of the most brilliant manifestations of the Baroque as Caravaggio's late work inspired the likes of Jusepe de Ribera, Massimo Stanzione and Luca Giordano. Painting and Public aims to present the first ever cultural history of Neapolitan Baroque painting putting the works of these and other artists into a broader context. It will examine the period from the point of view of how its artists and publics dynamically interacted in order to form a complex and mutually inter-dependent art world. The landscape that  it will reveal is one where artists struggled constantly to position themselves advantageously in an over-stocked pool of talent and where private and public patrons collectors alike were able to draw on an increasing range of options for acquiring works -as much from shrewdly business-oriented dealers, for example, as through direct negotiations with artists themselves.

The Economic Lives of Italian Baroque Painters

Collaborators

Richard E. Spear (University of Maryland), Philip Sohm (University of Toronto), Peter Lukehart (Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), Renata Ago, University of Rome, La Sapienza, Elena Fumagalli, University of Naples II, Raffaella Morselli, University of Teramo.

Brief Description

Most studies of the economics of 17th century painting have focused on patronage (especially in Italy) and market mechanisms (Northern Europe) at the expense of the artists themselves. Economic Lives takes painters as producers, marketers and self-promoters and asks how they earned their incomes, including secondary earnings from dealings and investments; what their pricing and marketing strategies were and, most importantly, what their socio-economic status was in relation to craftsmen, musicians, lawyers etc. By underscoring the importance of economic factors in making, selling, and displaying art Economic Lives wishes to shed further light on the professional realities of art making in the Baroque period and about the community and social life of artists, as well as the formation of taste in the period.

The Times and Spaces of Sculpture in the Museum

Collaborators

The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

This project considers the changing functions and associations of sculpture in the museum from the Renaissance to today. Sculpture has long enjoyed a prominent position in museums. Pope Sixtus IV's bequest of a sculpture collection to the people of Rome in 1471 formed the nucleus of the Capitoline Museum and sculpture played an equally fundamental role in the institution of Pope Julius II's Vatican Belvedere courtyard together with the countless private and public art collections that it helped to inspire. Sculpture in the Museum focuses on these and subsequent examples of high-profile sculpture initiatives instigated in museums as a means of promoting the institutions' wider aspirations and ideals. Work on the project commenced in late 2005 thanks to a Senior Fellowship awarded by the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. This Fellowship A conference is planned for 2007 on this topic, to be hosted by the Henry Moore Institute, which will form the basis, in turn, for an edited book, the development of further research modules and the publication of an eventual monograph on the topic.

Research students supervision

PhD Supervision
Glenys Adams, The Oratorians as Collectors and the Baroque Cult of Saint Philip Neri
Sue Angelatos, The Martyr-Cycle of the EnglishCollege, Rome
Emily Gray, Eric Westbrook and the National Gallery of Victoria, 1955-1975
Damian Lentini, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and the Kunsthalle/Arts Festival model of contemporary art exhibition
Meredith Martin, Museums, multi-media and identity
Kate McCulloch, Presenting Vietnam in Australian Museums
Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios, A network analysis of the Australian contemporary art world

Master of Arts (Research)
Michele Rowland, The Patronage of Vittoria della Rovere, Grandduchess of Tuscany
Master of Arts (Curatorship)
Juliette Hanson, Presenting Pollock from MOMA to NGA

Recent presentations (from 2002)

• Marshall, Christopher. "The Times and Spaces of Sculpture and the Museum: The Tate Gallery, 1897-2005," Henry Moore Research Institute, November 2005
• Marshall, Christopher. "Economic Perspectives on Neapolitan Baroque Painting," The Economic Lives of Italian Baroque Artists, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., March 2005
• Marshall, Christopher. "'The Spirit of Caesar in This Soul of a Woman': Artemisia Gentileschi and the Will to Succeed, 1629-1652," The 2004 Margaret Manion Lecture, Ian Potter Museum of Art Membership, October 2004
• Marshall, Christopher. "When Worlds Collide: The Contemporary Museum as Art Gallery," at Creative Space: An International Conference Exploring Museum and Gallery Space as a Creative Medium, Leicester University, Department of Museum Studies, April 2004
• Marshall, Christopher. "Theatre of Cruelty: Violence and Display in Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith and Holofernes," at Caravaggio Symposium, the National Gallery of Victoria, March 2004
• Marshall, Christopher. "Reimagining the Exhibition Space: Some Current Trends and Their Implications for Visitors," The Museums and Galleries Foundation of New South Wales, Social Spaces and Social Meanings Conference, 17th October 2003
• Marshall, Christopher. "The Convergence Effect and Some of its Possibilities for Art Museums," at Art Musems: Sites of Communication, National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, March 2003
• Marshall, Christopher. "Fun for all the family? Or Not Recommended for Minors? Patricia Piccinini and the Contemporary Museum," at Patricia Piccinini: New Technologies/New Ideas, Forum: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, February 2003
• Marshall, Christopher. "Best Practice in Teaching at the University of Melbourne," keynote presentation, and "Developing Graduate Attributes", session presentation, First Class Teaching and Learning at Melbourne: The University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium on Teaching and Learning, The University of Melbourne, December 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "Biography, Historiography and Cold Hard Cash: Bernardo de' Dominici and the Neapolitan Art Market," at Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Annual Conference, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, November 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "Markets, Money and Artistic Manoeuvres: Bernardo Cavallino and the Grand Manner," at The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art, Symposium, Ian Potter Museum of Art, School of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne, the Melbourne Museum and the Italian Institute of Culture, Melbourne, August 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. Panel Chair, "Collecting Then, Displaying Now", Papers and open discussion session on the subject of the collecting and exhibiting of Australian Indigenous material culture, Museums Australia, Ian Potter Museum, 18th May 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "The Early Career of Bernardo Cavallino and New Evidence Concerning the Early Provenance of the Martyrdom of St Bartholomew and The Triumph of Galatea," at Three Centuries of Italian Art: From Titian to Tiepolo Symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 28th March 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "Onorato mercante: Art Dealing and its Associations in Baroque Naples," at Mapping Markets in Europe and the New World, 1450-1750, convened by Duke University; hosted at Hotel Prinse, Antwerp, 9-10 March 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "Artists as Dealers in Seventeenth Century Naples," Academic Programs, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, February 2002
• Marshall, Christopher. "'Luca fa presto', Salvator Rosa, Giuseppe de Ribera et la développement de stratégies de vente à Naples [parallel translation from English to French]," Le commerce des tableaux aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Service culturel du musée du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, February 2001

Recent grants and awards

• 2005-06 Awarded a Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, for the project The Times and Spaces of Sculpture in the Museum.
• 2005 Awarded a Visiting Senior Lecturing Fellowship, Spring Term, January -May 2005, Department of Art and Art History, Duke University, Durham North Carolina.
• 2004 University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Seeding Grant for the project Artists Making Markets in Baroque Naples.
• 2003 Inaugural recipient of the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts Teaching Award.
• 2003&Two-time University of Melbourne nominee for the Australian Awards for University.
• 2002 Teaching (Humanities and the Arts).
• 2002 Invited to membership of the research project, The Economic Lives of Italian Baroque Painters, co-ordinated by Richard E. Spear and Philip Sohm (Universities of Maryland and Toronto).

Publications

Books

• Marshall, Christopher. Macmillan Interpreting Art: A Guide for Students, Melbourne: Macmillan, 2001
• Marshall, Christopher. A Deep Sonorous Thing: The NewmanCollege Collection of Art, Melbourne, 1993

Book chapters (from 2002)

• Marshall, Christopher. "Dispelling Negative Perceptions: Dealers Promoting Artists in Seventeenth-Century Naples," in de Marchi, Neil and Van Miegroet, Hans J. (eds.). Mapping Markets in Europe and the New World, 1450-1750. Brussels: Brepols, 2006, pp.348-64
• Marshall, Christopher. "When Worlds Collide: The Contemporary Museum as Art Gallery," in MacLeod, Suzanne (ed.). Reshaping Museum Space: Architecture, Design, Exhibitions. London and New York: Routledge, 2005, pp.170-84
• Marshall, Christopher. "Markets, Money and Artistic Manoeuvres: Bernardo Cavallino and the Grand Manner," Marshall, David R. (ed.). 'The Italians' in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art. Florence: Centro Di, 2004, pp.41-48
•  Marshall, Christopher. "Appagare il pubblico: The Marketing Strategies of Luca Giordano, 1678-1684," in Fantoni, Marcello; Matthews, Louisa and Matthews-Grieco, Sara (eds.). The Art Market in Italy (15th-17th Centuries): Il mercato dell'arte in Italia (sec. XV-XVII). Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, 2003, pp.245-52
• Marshall, Christopher. "Liturgical Overview: Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Newman College," in Falkinger, Richard (ed.). Ringing the Changes: New Heritage versus Liturgy, Chronicles 1971-2000. Melbourne: David Lovell Publishing, 2002, pp.53-55

Journal articles (from 2002)

• Marshall, Christopher. "Art Museums in an Age of Bread and Circuses," in Australian Book Review, March 2006
• Marshall, Christopher. "The Spirit of Caesar in This Soul of a Woman: Artemisia Gentileschi and the Will to Succeed, 1629-54," in Melbourne Art Journal, no. 8, 2005, pp.4-27
• Marshall, Christopher. "An Early Inventory Reference and New Technical Information for Bernardo Cavallino's 'Triumph of Galatea'," in The Burlington Magazine, CXLVII/1222, 2005, pp.40-44
• Marshall, Christopher. "Imperial Legacy," in Museum Practice (Museums Association UK), no. 27, Autumn 2004, pp.32-35
• Marshall, Christopher. "Displaying Painting in Seventeenth Century Naples," in Center 22. Washington: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, 2002, pp.117-20
• Marshall, Christopher. "'Senza il minimo scrupolo': Artists as Dealers in Seventeenth Century Naples," in Journal of the History of Collections, XII/1, 2000, pp.15-34
• Marshall, Christopher. "Only Connect: Victorian VCE Art in the Year 2000," in Art Monthly Australia, 129, May 2000, pp.4-6
• Marshall, Christopher. "Response to the National Gallery of Victoria on Russell," in Insite [Museums Australia], February-March 2000, p.8

Other publications (from 2002)

• Marshall, Christopher. Macmillan Interpreting Art: Teacher CD-Rom, Macmillan, 2002
  "Museum of Memory" [DVD special feature], Russian Ark, Alexander Sukurov (dir.), Madman Cinema, 2004
• Marshall, Christopher. "Bernardo Cavallino, The Virgin Annunciate" and "Jacopo Amigoni, Portrait Group: The Singer Farinelli and Friends", in Rowan, Dana (ed.). European Masterpieces: Six Centuries of Paintings from the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, exhibition catalogue. Cincinnati Art Museum, Kimbell Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, 29th October, 2000 to 14th January, 2001, cats. 24 and 40, pp.66-67, 98-99, 203, 205
• Marshall, Christopher. "Review, Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria," in Art and Australia, 42/3, 2005, pp.376-78
• Marshall, Christopher. "Review, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His World, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of Victoria," in The Burlington Magazine, CXLVI/1214, 2004, pp.356-58
• Marshall, Christopher. "Review, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His World, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of Victoria," in Art and Australia, 41/3, 2004, pp.374-77