Simonetta Vespucci
Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci ( * probably on January 28, 1453 in Porto Venere or Genoa, † April 26, 1476 in Florence) was considered the most beautiful woman of Florence and inspired numerous artists of the Italian Renaissance, including Piero di Cosimo, who posed as Cleopatra or Sandro Botticelli, who - immortalized in his work the Birth of Venus and in many other allegorical Madonna and portrait views - according to older conceptions in art history. Ernst Gombrich had this theory discarded. Through new comparative juxtapositions in a Botticelli retrospective in Frankfurt's Städel 2009/10 it is, however, re-entered the field of view.
Her father was a Genoese nobleman named Gaspare Cattaneo Della Volta, and her mother was his wife Cattocchia Spinola de Candia, the daughter of a nobleman from Genoa.
Simonetta was married at the age of 16 years with Marco Vespucci ( cousin of a sailor and explorer Amerigo Vespucci), the marriage was, however - probably because homosexual inclinations of the young husband - not happy. However, they allowed Simonetta quick access to the circles of the Medici family.
On January 29, 1475, a tournament was held in Florence, in which Giuliano de ' Medici, the brother of the famous Lorenzo Il Magnifico, his appearance Simonetta, who ( regina della bellezza ) had dedicated "Queen of Beauty". She appeared on a - not received - script from Botticelli's workshop with helmet, spear and shield in the pose of Pallas Athene next to Cupid, who was chained to a tree, the broken arrows; this scene meant to symbolize that the Beautiful resists the lure of the advertiser and rejects him, as required by the tournament rules. Also Poliziano describes this event in such a way that the chosen one is to Minerva, and Botticelli's Minerva representations in turn carry similar traits to the idealized beautiful woman who allegedly Simonetta Vespucci is.
It is not clear whether it remained after the tournament at the Platonic worship or Simonetta became the mistress of Giuliano. Bears evidence such as the Medici cameo Botticelli's " Idealized Portrait " ( Stadel ) around the neck, have been found again and again. On the other hand, it can be assumed that a connection between a Medici regent and a married woman would have to trigger a city known scandal; such but is not recorded in the sources.
Simonetta died only a year later in the night of 26 April 27, 1476 at the age of 23 years of tuberculosis and was buried in the family chapel of the Vespucci in the Church of Ognissanti in Florence. Giuliano was stabbed to death on the day, two years after her death during the " Pazzi conspiracy " in the Florentine cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore.