Simonetta Vespucci was born in Republic of Genoa in around 1453. At age fifteen or sixteen she married her husband Marco Vespucci, whom she met in Church with her parents in April of 1469. The two married in Florence, Italy where she instantly because very popular and well-liked. Not long after arriving in Florence every nobleman in town was infatuated and interested in her beauty. Some of the Medici family, including brothers , Lorenzo and Giuliano took an instant liking towards her. Lorenzo even permitted the Vespucci wedding to be held at the palazzo in Via Larga, and held the wedding reception at their lavish Villa di Careggi. The Medici family painter, Sandro Botticeli also took a liking to the beautiful young woman. At a jousting tournament in 1475, Guiliano Medici entered the lists bearing a picture by Botticeli of Simonetta as Pallas Athene. From then on she became known as the most beautiful woman in Florence, and then later on the most beautiful woman of the Renaissance. Guiliano won the tournament and the affection of Simonetta, but he wasn't the only one. Artist Sandro Botticeli too had an obsession with her beauty. The pictures above are portraits the artist did of Simonetta. Does her face look familiar to you? Botticeli over the years has been accused of putting Simonetta's portrait in many of his other paintings. Those paintings include Mars and Venus, and The Birth of Venus. While there is no solid proof that the woman depicted as Venus in those paintings is indeed Simonetta Vespucci, there is no denying the uncanny resemblance.
It's almost like paintings of that time period are closely related to magazines of ours, both of which show whatever is deemed attractive in a person. I think it's cool how Simonetta became a kind of celebrity in her life even though she was a woman.
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