Wild animal tamers, fashion photographers, and potentates all know the allure of exotic animals. Indeed, as this captivating book proves abundantly, numerous famous men have been inordinately enthralled by majestic wild beasts. Marina Belozerskaya's The Medici Giraffe walks readers through 23 centuries of history to reveal the influential roles played by desert and jungle creatures. The human menagerie she uncovers in the process would rival the wonder of any circus: Hapsburg ruler Rudolf II, who was so preoccupied with collecting animals that he couldn't always afford to feed them; and muckraker mogul William Randolph Hearst, who made his California estate a preserve for antelopes, zebras, camels, and yaks.
The title of this masterful and beguiling book is misleading. In Belozersakya's adept hands, exotic animals are mere jumping off points for marvelous adventures through worlds ranging from bustling, heroic Alexandria, Egypt, circa 300 B.C., to the creepy confines of William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon in the mid-20th century. While each of the seven sections revolves around exotic animalsa giraffe in Medici Florence, menageries in 16th-century Prague and Napoleonic Franceit's the story that Belozersakya weaves around these beasts that draws the reader on. A common thread is the obsession caused by these fanciful beasts. Rudolf II, spent so much of his kingdom's fortune on collecting animals that there wasn't always enough money to feed his voracious lions. . "This might explain why on several occasions the Emperor had to recompense servants and subjects mauled by his felines." A meticulous researcher, the Russian-born Belozersakya, an art historian who has taught at Harvard and Tufts, uses these tales to consider how exotic animals have served as diplomatic gifts, as "symbols of power and learning," as mirrors of the cultures that prized them. This is a sumptuous readsmart, funny and utterly compelling. 8 illus. not seen by PW. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Moscow-born art historian Belozerskaya has an exceptional talent for making history come alive for the general reader. This work is a thoroughly entertaining and enlightening romp through history, starting in ancient Alexandria and ending in present-day Washington, DC. Belozerskaya aims to "show that the way we perceive and treat animals illuminates our own values, concerns, and ambitions," and in this she has clearly succeeded. Her first chapter, "Elephants for a Kingdom," is a fascinating look at how elephants were acquired, transported, and trained in the Mediterranean region in the years following the death of Alexander the Great as well as the power and influence afforded those who acquired the animals. The following chapter, "Controlling Nature in the Roman Arena," is just as enthralling, as are all subsequent chapters leading to the gift of giant pandas to the United States in the late 1970s. Belozerskaya is a talented writer able to blend unique and little-known historical facts into a narrative that never fails to keep the reader interested. The only disappointment is that the book eventually ends. Highly recommended, not only for animal lovers but for history buffs and social sciences fans as well; this work deserves a broad readership.-Edell M. Schaefer, Brookfield P.L., WI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
A lively account of how exotic animals have helped further the political ends of princes and potentates, from the Ptolemys to Chairman Mao. "In our world of easy travel and global media," writes Belozerskaya (Luxury Arts of the Renaissance, not reviewed), "we tend to take [exotic animals] for granted." It was not always thus. Alexandria's Ptolemy Philadelphus sponsored arduous and costly expeditions to capture war elephants, camels, bears, giraffes, even a two-horned white rhinoceros, to demonstrate his resourcefulness and intimidate rivals. Pompey the Great personally financed stupendous death matches in the Roman arena featuring leopards, baboons and rhinos, seeking to wow the crowd. (Politically tone deaf, he approved the slaughter of a group of terrified, howling elephants that had unexpectedly won the spectators' sympathy.) Lorenzo the Magnificent brought honor to his Florentine family by arranging a trade agreement with Egypt, from whose sultan he received a giraffe that inspired a sensation throughout Renaissance Italy and further enhanced Medici prestige. Almost contemporaneously, Montezuma demonstrated his power by maintaining a menagerie comprising creatures drawn from the far reaches of the vast Aztec empire. Later, Cortes would use these same jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, parrots and armadillos to dazzle the Spanish court and shore up his tottering position as governor of New Spain. With his aviaries, menagerie and cabinet of natural-history specimens, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II turned 16th-century Prague into an intellectual capital. The Empress Josephine achieved the same for Paris under Napoleon, filling the grounds of her chateau in Malmaison with plants, birds and animalsfrom all over the world. Media mogul William Randolph Hearst channeled his emotional neediness, political disappointment and genuine love of animals into his San Simeon estate, creating the most extensive private zoo of the 20th century. Belozerskaya acknowledges that her perspective on long-ago events could be viewed as overly precious, but these intriguing and little-known stories easily justify themselves. Animal lore and history have rarely been treated so delightfully.
