La Bella Simonetta, It Girl of the Renaissance
Botticelli's Venus and the Medici's Golden Age of Florence, Italy
Sep 29, 2009
The name La Bella Simonetta may be a mystery, but her image in Alessandro Botticelli’s (ca. 1445 – 1510) Birth of Venus may be the most recognizable in western culture.
Best known by the nickname given to her by Lorenzo “The Magnificent” de Medici (1447 -1492), La Bella Simonetta was the most celebrated beauty of Florence’s Golden Age.
She was painted by innumerable artists, prominently featured in one of the most renowned works of Renaissance poetry, and eulogized by the magnificent Lorenzo himself. Her funeral procession was an event the entire city of Florence turned out for. Her image continued to be painted for years after her death until it became the symbol of idealized beauty. She was the muse of muses, the It Girl of the Renaissance.
A Venus for Both Botticelli and the Medici
Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci (c. 1453-1476) found herself at the center of the Medici’s circle of intellectuals and artists of the Platonic Academy. Born during the exile of her powerful Genovese banking family, the Cattaneo’s, her birthplace is thought to be either Fessano or Porte Venere, Italy. Part of a string of towns perched along the edge of the Ligurean Sea known as the Cinque Terre. Porte Venere is also known as the birthplace of Venus.
It is not known when she moved to Florence permanently. In the year 1478 at the age of fifteen, she married to the ill-reputed Marco Vespucci (1453 – 1497), a cousin of Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). The Vespucci’s held close business and political ties to the Medici family. Amerigo worked for the Medici bank and his voyage of exploration to The New World was financed by the Medici.
Due to a popular poem by Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), Stanza per la Giostra, and visual clues in paintings, speculation about Simonetta’s relationship with both brothers and co-rulers of Florence, Lorenzo and Guilliano de Medici (1453 – 1478) continue to this day. In Botticelli’s Mars and Venus, it is speculated that Mars could be either Marco or Guilliano.
The image of Venus in her shell is called anadyomene and represents Venus’s rise from the sea. The choice of Simonetta as the purported model for this painting may have been at the request of the patron or to celebrate this great beauty’s relationship with the Medici.
The Power of Art in the Renaissance Politics, an Ideal Beauty
Speculation abounds, as it could also have been the artist’s choice. Botticelli had painted her image at least once on a banner carried by Guilliano into his coming of age joust in 1475, and it is highly likely twice prior to this. Another theory ties her image as Venus to the place of her birth.
Simonetta’s popularity came during the first years of Lorenzo the Magnificent’s reign as First Citizen of Florence when his group of power players ruled not only Florence but influenced the courts of Europe with the Medici Bank and merchant exchanges. This was not only the Golden Age of Florence, it was a Renaissance in business, politics and social customs throughout Europe centered on Lorenzo de Medici and his inner circle, which included Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci.
As art was the muse of power, Botticelli’s image of Venus transcended both. He not only painted her as Venus, but as the Madonna, several saints and classical goddesses throughout his career and long after her death. It is said that he requested to be buried at her feet. No matter what It was that made Simonetta so popular, the fact remains that no other muse has captivated her audience so fully for so very long.
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