Simonetta Vespucci, nicknamed la bella Simonetta, was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci.
10 Facts About Simonetta Vespucci
2.
Simonetta Vespucci was known as the greatest beauty of her age in Italy, and was allegedly the model for many paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and other Florentine painters.
3.
Simonetta Vespucci was born Simonetta Cattaneo c 1453 in a part of the Republic of Genoa that is in the Italian region of Liguria.
4.
Smitten with Simonetta Vespucci, 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.
5.
Simonetta Vespucci was a married woman and a member of a powerful family allied to his.
6.
Simonetta Vespucci was twenty-two at the time of her death.
7.
Traditionally, it was thought that death was caused by tuberculosis; however, new evidence suggests that Simonetta Vespucci suffered from a pituitary adenoma secreting prolactin and growth hormone secretion.
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Amerigo Vespucci 8.
Simonetta Vespucci finished one of his most famous paintings, The Birth of Venus, around 1486,10 years after Simonetta's death; some have claimed that Venus, in this painting, closely resembles her.
9.
Simonetta Vespucci's wish was carried out when he died 34 years later, in 1510.
10.
Yet how closely this resembles Simonetta Vespucci is uncertain, not least because it is a posthumous portrait created about 14 years after her death.