Simonetta Vespucci
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| Simonetta Vespucci | |
|---|---|
 A portrait of Simonetta Vespucci by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1474 |
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| Born | c.1453 Portovenere or Genoa, Italy |
| Died | April 26, 1476 Florence, Italy |
| Occupation | Model |
| Parents | Gaspare Cattaneo and Cattocchia |
Simonetta Cattaneo de Vespucci (nicknamed la bella Simonetta; ca. 1453 – 26 April 1476) was the wife of the Italian nobleman Marco Vespucci of Florence. She also is alleged to have been the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent's younger brother. She was renowned for being the greatest beauty of her age - certainly of the city of Florence. She is depicted in Piero di Cosimo's paintings Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, in which she is portrayed as Cleopatra with an asp around her neck, and The Death of Procris. Countless poems and canvasses by many other painters were also created in her honor.
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[edit] Early life and marriage
She was born Simonetta Cattaneo in 1453 or 1454. Her father was a Genoese nobleman named Gaspare Cattaneo, and her mother was his wife, Cattocchia.
There is some dispute as to her birthplace; some say that she was born at Portovenere, in Liguria, where the goddess Venus was born; the poet Politian wrote that her home was "in that stern Ligurian district up above the seacoast, where angry Neptune beats against the rocks. There, like Venus, she was born among the waves." Others say that she was born at Genoa.
At age fifteen or sixteen she married Marco Vespucci, son of Piero, who was a distant cousin of the famous Florentine explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.
Through the Vespucci family she was discovered by Botticelli and other prominent painters upon arriving at Florence. Before long every nobleman in the city was besotted with her, even the brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano of the ruling Medici family. Lorenzo was occupied with affairs of state, but his younger brother was free to pursue her.
At La Giostra (a jousting tournament) in 1475, Giuliano entered the lists bearing a banner on which was a picture of Simonetta as a helmeted Pallas Athene painted by Botticelli himself, beneath which was the French inscription La Sans Pareille, “The unparalleled one.”
He won the tournament and the affection of la bella Simonetta, who was nominated “The Queen of Beauty” at that event. It is unknown however if they actually became lovers.
[edit] Death
Simonetta Vespucci died just one year later, on the night of April 26-27, 1476, probably from pulmonary tuberculosis. She was only twenty-two at the time of her death. Her husband remarried soon afterwards. The entire city was reported to mourn at her death and thousands followed her coffin to its burial.
Botticelli finished painting The Birth of Venus in 1485, nine years later. Some have claimed that Venus, in this painting, closely resembles Simonetta.[2] This claim, however, is dismissed as "romantic nonsense" by noted historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto:
"The vulgar assumption, for instance, that she was Botticelli's model for all his famous beauties seems to be based on no better grounds than the feeling that the most beautiful woman of the day ought to have modeled for the most sensitive painter."[3]
Some suggest[who?] that Boticelli also had fallen in love with her, a view supported by his request to be buried at her feet in the Church of Ognissanti - the parish church of the Vespucci - in Florence. His wish was in fact carried out when he died some 34 years later, in 1510.
[edit] See also
- Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci by Piero di Cosimo.
- Spring by Botticelli. The central figure is presumed to be a portrait of La Bella Simonetta.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Painting at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- ^ Brenda Harness. "The Face That Launched A Thousand Prints". http://www.finearttouch.com/The_Art_of_Botticelli_The_Face_That_Launched_A_Thousand_Prints.html. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
- ^ Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe (2007). Amerigo. Random House. ISBN 1400062810.
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