Simonetta Vespucci

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Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci (1453 – April 26, 1476) was the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent's younger brother. She was renowned for being the greatest beauty of her age and was believed to have been the model for Venus in Botticelli's The Birth of Venus as well as several other women in his paintings. She was also the model for Piero di Cosimo's paintings Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, in which she is depicted as Cleopatra with an asp around her neck, and The Death of Procris. Countless poems and canvasses by many other painters were created in her honor.

She was born Simonetta Cattaneo in 1453. There is a conflict on her birthplace; some say that she was born at Portovenere, where the goddess Venus was to be born, while others say at Genoa. At age fifteen she married Marco Vespucci, who was a distant cousin of the famous Florentine explorer 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 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,” as she was called, who was nominated “The Queen of Beauty” at that event. They became lovers.

Simonetta died just one year later on April 26, 1476 from pulmonary tuberculosis. She was twenty-two. Botticelli finished painting The Birth of Venus in 1485, nine years later.

it was rumored that thirty-four years after her death, Botticelli asked to be buried at her feet.

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