Belozerskaya, Marina 1966-

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Belozerskaya, Marina 1966-

PERSONAL: Born 1966, in Moscow, Russia; married to a museum curator. Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1987; University of Chicago, M.A., 1992, Ph.D., 1997.

ADDRESSES: Home— Los Angeles, CA. Office— J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90049-1679. Agent— Lippincott Massie McQuilkin, 80 5th Ave., Ste. 1101, New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Writer and art historian. Hellenic College, Brookline, MA, lecturer, 1996; Boston University, Boston, MA, lecturer, 1996, 1998-99; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, teaching assistant, 1997-99; Tufts University, Boston, teaching assistant, 1999. Agora Museum, Athens, Greece, assistant manager, 1988-89; participated in excavations in Corinth, Greece, 1989, and Rome, Italy, 1990; American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, visiting scholar, 1989-90.

AWARDS, HONORS: Dean’s travel grant, University of Chicago, 1994; Mellon fellowship in humanistic studies, 1991-96; Samuel H. Kress Foundation dissertation fellowship, 1996-97; College Art Association/Kress Foundation travel grant, 1998; certificate of distinction in teaching, Harvard University, 1997 and 1998; Frieda L. Miller fellow, Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College/Harvard University, 1999-2000; Dean’s fellow, Bunting Fellowship Program, Radcliffe College/Harvard University, 2000-2001; Samuel H. Kress Foundation publication grant, 2001; Millard Meiss publication grant, College Art Association, 2001; Bogliasco fellowship, Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, 2002.

WRITINGS

Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts across Europe, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Kenneth Lapatin) Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA), 2004.

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA), 2005.

The Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power, (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Antiquity and Its Interpreters, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000;The Folio Society Book of the Hundred GreatestPortraits, edited by Martin Bailey, 2004; and Portraits of Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century France, edited by Mary Morton, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA), 2007. Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Early Modern History and Source: Notes in the History of Art.

SIDELIGHTS: Art historian Marina Belozerskaya is the author of a number of works of nonfiction, including Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts across Europe and The Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power. In Rethinking the Renaissance, the author examines the influence of paintings, textiles, architecture, music, and sculpture from the Burgundian Netherlands and “argues for a complete reappraisal of the phenomenon known as the Renaissance,” observed Art Bulletin contributor Julien Chapuis. According to Anne Simonson, writing in the Renaissance Quarterly, “Belozerskaya’s excellent introduction to a fifteenth century dominated by a Burgundian, not Florentine, aesthetic is sure to renew investigation of the once-familiar and should help convince general and specialist readers alike of the need to adopt more international and pluralist perspectives.”

In Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History, Belozerskaya and coauthor Kenneth Lapatin focus on Greek culture from the Minoan era to the Hellenistic period. In the words of Bryn Mawr Classical Review critic Fiona Greenland, the authors “have produced a book on Greek material culture that is rich in illustration, stimulating in discussion, and clear in its organization of information.”Luxury Arts of the Renaissance focuses on the jewel-studded goldwork, engraved armor, rich tapestries, and other objects that reflected social status during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Belozerskaya also devotes a chapter to the spectacular productions of the period, “which discusses the combined effect of ceremonial parades, elaborate and costly table settings and clothes, rich food with exotic ingredients, and music on the guests a Renaissance prince or merchant wanted to impress,” wrote a critic in the Architectural Science Review. Containing more than 200 illustrations, the work constitutes “a beautiful object in its own right and is readable and well documented” as well, noted Library Journal reviewer Nancy Mactague.

The Medici Giraffe is “a lively account of how exotic animals have helped further the political ends of princes and potentates, from the Ptolemys to Chairman Mao,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. In the work, Belozerskaya recounts the stories of King Rudolf II of Bohemia (1575) and Holy Roman Emperor (1576-1612), who allowed a lion to roam freely throughout his castle; Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Italian prince who offered his pet giraffe as proof of his family’s prestige; and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who populated his estate at San Simeon, California, with buffalo, kangaroo, and tapirs. New York Times Book Review critic William Grimes stated that the author “proclaims a lofty theme in The Medici Giraffe: the relationship between political power and exotic animals. What she actually delivers is an unconnected series of historical essays devoted to strange and wonderful animals, and the great men who lusted after them. The whole is less than the sum of its parts.” Other reviewers were more complimentary. Library Journal critic Edell M. Schaefer called Belozerskaya “talented” and described the book as a mixture of “unique and little-known historical facts. . . that never fail to keep the reader interested.” Ingrid D. Rowland, writing in the American Scholar, praised the author’s ability to accurately portray humankind’s relationship to the natural environment. “As The Medici Giraffe shows in telling detail,” Rowland commented, “the power of human institutions and human engineering has always worked against a background of powers greater still, embodied for us by creatures whose strangeness, perfection, and uncanny independence have always beggared our imagination.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

American Scholar, autumn, 2006, Ingrid D. Rowland, “Peaceable Kingdom,” review of The Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power, p. 133.

Architectural Science Review, March, 2006, “What the Luxury Art Objects in Renaissance Palaces Meant to Their Owners,” review of Luxury Arts of the Renaissance, p. 106.

Art Bulletin, September, 2004, Julien Chapuis, “The Donor’s Image,” review of Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts across Europe, p. 599.

Booklist, July 1, 2006, Nancy Bent, review of The Medici Giraffe, p. 17.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, December 1, 2004, Fiona Greenland, review of Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History, p. 144.

California Bookwatch, October, 2006, review of The Medici Giraffe.

Entertainment Weekly, August 25, 2006, Wook Kim, review of The Medici Giraffe, p. 89.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2006, review of The Medici Giraffe, p. 553.

Library Journal, February 1, 2006, Nancy Mactague, review of Luxury Arts of the Renaissance, p. 75; August 1, 2006, Edell M. Schaefer, review of The Medici Giraffe, p. 116.

New York Times Book Review, August 25, 2006, William Grimes, “Where Wild Things Are Perks of Power,” review of The Medici Giraffe.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 2004, Anne Simonson, review of Rethinking the Renaissance, p. 671