Simonetta Vespucci
Simonetta Vespucci | |
---|---|
Portovenere, Republic of Genoa | |
Died | 26 April 1476 | (aged 22–23)
Spouse |
Marco Vespucci (m. 1469) |
Parents |
|
Relatives | Amerigo Vespucci (cousin-in-law) |
Simonetta Vespucci (
Biography
Early life and marriage
Simonetta Cattaneo was born around 1453 in a part of the
At age sixteen she married Marco Vespucci, son of Piero, who was a distant cousin of the explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. They met in April 1469, when she was with her parents at the church of San Torpete in Genoa; the doge Piero il Fregoso and much of the Genoese nobility were present. Marco had been sent to Genoa by his father, Piero, to study at the Banco di San Giorgio. Smitten with Simonetta, Marco was accepted by her parents as their daughter's prospective bridegroom; they likely felt that the marriage would be advantageous because Marco's family was well connected in Florence, especially to the Medici family.
Florence
Simonetta and Marco were married in Florence that same year. According to legend, Simonetta quickly became popular at the Florentine court, and attracted the interest of the Medici brothers,
Death
Simonetta Vespucci died just one year after the joust, on the night of 26–27 April 1476. She was twenty-two at the time of her death. She was carried through the city in an open coffin for all to admire, and there may have existed a posthumous cult about her in Florence.[11] Her husband remarried soon afterward. Giuliano de Medici was assassinated in the Pazzi conspiracy on 26 April 1478, two years to the day after Simonetta's death.[12]
Traditionally, it was thought that her death was caused by
Representations
Among other subjects,
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 modelled for the most sensitive painter.[15]
Some art historians, including John Ruskin, suggest that Botticelli had fallen in love with Simonetta, a view supported by Botticelli's request to be buried in the
Botticelli painted the standard carried by Giuliano at the joust in 1475, which carried an image of
Again, this is a work that some have claimed contains a representation of Simonetta.Possible depictions
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Portrait of a Woman by the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, early-mid 1480s
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Portrait of a Woman by the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, mid-1480s[20]
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Flora inThe Birth of Venusby Sandro Botticelli, circa 1484-1486
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Detail of one of thePrimavera by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1482
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Detail of the Venus figure, representing marriage, inPrimavera by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1482
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Detail of the Venus figure inThe Birth of Venusby Sandro Botticelli, circa 1484-1486
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A Satyr mourning over a Nymph by Piero di Cosimo, circa 1495
Regarding each Portrait of a Woman pictured above, credited to the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, Ronald Lightbown claims they were creations of Botticelli's workshop that were likely neither drawn nor painted exclusively by Botticelli himself. Regarding these two paintings he also notes that "[Botticelli's work]shop...executed portraits of ninfe, or fair ladies...all probably fancy portraits of ideal beauties, rather than real ladies."[21]
Simonetta Vespucci may also be depicted in the painting by Piero di Cosimo titled
Notes
- ISBN 0500201536; Jiminez; Ettle
- ISBN 978-8-81200032-6. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- Scribner. p. 146.
- OCLC 49036189.
- Ambrogini, Angelo. Giostra. Vol. 1, verse 32.
This translation is somewhat loose. Maraviglia di mie belleze tenere / Non prender già ch' i' nacqui in grembo a Venere. A literal reading of Poliziano would put her birthplace in the town of Portovenere, but this is more likely a reference to Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
- ^ Simioni, Attilio (1908). "Donne ed Amori Medicei". Nuova Antologia di Lettere, Scienza, ed Arti. CXXXV. Roma: 688.
- ^ a b c Lightbown 1989, p. 63.
- ^ a b c Lightbown 1989, p. 61.
- ^ a b Lightbown 1989, p. 62.
- ^ a b Lightbown 1989, p. 64.
- ^ ISBN 9781135959142.
- ISBN 978-0-86706-083-6.
- ^ Paolo Pozzilli, Luca Vollero, Anna Maria Colao, pp. 1067-1073
- ^ Harness, Brenda. "The Face That Launched A Thousand Prints". Fine Art Touch. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2.
- ^ Lightbown 1989, p. 120.
- ^ Lightbown 1989, p. 121.
- ^ Lightbown 1989, p. 122.
- ^ "Spring mysteries: Botticelli's Primavera". The Artstor Blog. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- Bode-Museum(in German). 25 August 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ Lightbown 1989, p. 313.
- Musee Conde(in French). Retrieved 11 December 2011.
Once on the museum's web site, click on the "Recherche" section, then search by "Vespucci" to find details of this painting
References
- Ettle, Ross Brooke, "The Venus dilemma: notes on Botticelli and Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci," Notes in the History of Art 27, no. 4 (Summer 2008): 3–10. DOI: 10.1086/sou.27.4.23207901
- Lightbown, Ronald W. (1989). Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work. ISBN 9780896599314.
- Pozzilli, Paolo, Vollero, Luca, Colao, Anna Maria, "Venus by Botticelli and her Pituitary Adenoma", Endocrine Practice, vol. 25(10) (2019): 1067–1073. DOI: 10.4158/EP-2019-0024