Simonetta Vespucci – The Renaissance Supermodel

Browse through Sandro Botticelli's works and you'll soon notice that many of the women he painted look remarkably alike – and for good reason. If we had to name the one Renaissance woman who inspired the greatest number of famous paintings, it would undoubtedly be Simonetta Vespucci, also known as La Bella. Simonetta was a noblewoman from Genoa and the wife of Marco Vespucci (yes, the very same Vespucci family whose Amerigo Vespucci realized that Columbus had discovered not India, but America). She was strikingly beautiful, and famous Renaissance painters often painted her portrait.

Piero di Cosimo, "Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci," 1490, photo Wikimedia Commons

Simonetta married Marco when she was fifteen. The two met at a church service in 1469. Her family liked Marco immediately, and he fell in love with her, so there was no question about the marriage. The match was also a practical one, since Marco's family had influential connections in Florence, especially with the famous Medici.

Simonetta and Marco were married in Florence, and the beauty quickly became a sensation among Florentine high society. She was discovered by Sandro Botticelli and many other prominent painters. Legend has it that every nobleman in the city was infatuated with her, including Lorenzo and Giuliano, the brothers of the ruling family. Lorenzo was busy with matters of state, so it was Giuliano who was free to court her attention.

At a jousting tournament held in 1475, Giuliano carried a banner painted by Sandro Botticelli depicting Simonetta as Athena, with the French inscription La Sans Pareille – "The Unrivaled One" – beneath her. From that time on, Simonetta was regarded as the most beautiful woman in Florence.

Giuliano won not only the tournament but also Simonetta's favor, and at the event she was crowned queen of beauty. Historians, however, are highly doubtful that the two ever became lovers. Other artists were equally captivated by the young blonde's beauty: Piero di Cosimo portrayed her as Cleopatra, and Luigi Pulci wrote poems in her honor.

Sandro Botticelli, "Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci," 1474, photo Wikimedia Commons

Sandro Botticelli, "Idealized Portrait of a Woman (Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as a Nymph)," 1480, photo Wikimedia Commons

Sadly, Simonetta's life was short. She died of tuberculosis a year later, though scholars today believe the actual cause of death was a pituitary adenoma. Her husband soon remarried, and two years later Giuliano was murdered in the Pazzi conspiracy.

Now for the most fascinating part. Everyone agrees that Botticelli visited the Vespucci household on many occasions and painted Simonetta from life. Questions arise, however, over the works created after Simonetta's death. Botticelli completed "The Birth of Venus" in 1485, nine years after Simonetta had died. The resemblance between Venus and the woman in her known portraits is undeniable. The same can be said of one of the three Graces in "Primavera." Some art historians dismiss this as "romantic nonsense," but why would the same artist repeat the same facial features across several decades? Simonetta was undoubtedly a wellspring of inspiration for him. And, to close, the painter himself asked to be buried in the same place as his muse, the Church of Ognissanti in Florence. Thirty-four years later, his wish was granted.

Sandro Botticelli, fragment of "Primavera" showing one of the three Graces, 1484, photo Wikimedia Commons

Sandro Botticelli, "Venus and Mars," 1485, photo Wikimedia Commons