La Primavera

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore - Il Duomo, Firenze. Photography: Rose-Coloured-Glasses, 2012.

By now, you all know how much Italy inspires me...especially Florence. The city's heyday was centuries ago, but what an incredible influence they have been to our world and will be for future generations.

Self-Portrait, Detail from the Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Gallery, Firenze.

Well, today is the anniversary of the death of Sandro Botticelli (~1445-1510), the brilliant and graceful Renaissance artist who painted the Birth of Venus and La Primavera. Although not much is known about his life, apparently Botticelli was a quick wit and enjoyed playing practical jokes on his friends and students. Also, it is rumoured that he was in love with a married woman called Simonetta Vespucci, the muse for his Venus and other beauties in his paintings. 

The Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery, Firenze.

Simonetta, originally from Genoa, had married Marco Vespucci, a distant cousin of Amerigo Vespucci, from a prominent and well-connected family in Florence. Simonetta was considered the most beautiful woman in Florence - or even the age of the Renaissance. She also managed to easily entrance the ruling Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano, the latter who jousted in her honour. From nobleman to artist, every man was smitten by her beauty.

Alas, Simonetta died very young at the age of 22. And Botticelli, who never married, requested to be buried at her feet at the Church of Ognissanti, the parish church of the Vespucci family. His request was in fact fulfilled when he died 34 years later.

Whether this is all true or legend, I don't know a more romantic story for Springtime.

Chiesa di Ognissanti (All-Saints Church), Firenze. Photography: Rose-Coloured-Glasses, 2012.