Simonetta Vespucci

Simonetta Vespucci
Portrait of a woman, said to be of Vespucci (c. 1490), by Piero di Cosimo
Born
Simonetta Cattaneo

c. 1453
Genoa or Portovenere, Republic of Genoa
Died26 April 1476(1476-04-26) (aged 22–23)
Florence, Republic of Florence
Spouse
Marco Vespucci
​
(m. 1469)​
Parents
  • Gaspare Cattaneo della Volta (father)
  • Caterina Violante "Cattocchia" Spinola (mother)
RelativesAmerigo Vespucci (cousin-in-law)

Simonetta Vespucci (née Cattaneo; c. 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed la bella Simonetta ("the fair Simonetta"), was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She 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. Some art historians have taken issue with these attributions, which the Victorian critic John Ruskin has been blamed for promulgating.[1]

  1. ^ Leopold Ettlinger with Helen S. Ettlinger, Botticelli, pp. 118-119, 164-168, 1976, Thames and Hudson (World of Art), ISBN 0500201536; Jiminez; Ettle