The woman behind Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” died at just 23

‘The Birth of Venus’ was painted by Sandro Botticelli around 1485.

Scientists have a new theory about the death of Simonetta Vespucci, muse of the Renaissance.

“The Birth of Venus”, by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelliis easily one of the best-known paintings of the Renaissance. But the premature death of the young woman and muse who made the painting possible remains shrouded in mystery.

A new one, recently published in the magazine Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, suggests that Botticelli’s model, Simonetta Vespuccidied due to complications caused by a pituitary tumor.

Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci was born in Genoa, Italy, on January 28, 1453. She was known in Florentine high society for her manners and intelligence.

The humanist and poet Poliziano called it “La Sans Par” (“a sem igual”). Simonetta was close to Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medicithe powerful co-rulers of the Florentine Republic.

In 1469, Simonetta married Marco Vespuccimember of a noble Florentine banking family. Sandro Botticelli was among his most devoted admirers and friends. Throughout his career, painted it five times.

Simonetta died in 1476, in Florence, aged just 23. Although average life expectancy was lower in the 15th century, nobles like Simonetta often lived longerpartly thanks to its wealth.

His body was publicly exposed dressed and uncovered: dressed in white, with her face uncovered, an honor reserved for illustrious figures of the Renaissance. She was buried in the church of Ognissanti, where her remains remain to this day.

Em 1510, Botticelli asked to be buried at his feetas a final gesture of devotion to his muse. Art historians consider Simonetta’s features to represent the pinnacle of Renaissance aesthetics, but these same features may also contain clues to her death.

Headaches, hallucinations, vomiting and fever

Initially, the cause of death was suspected to have been tuberculosis, says . In a published in 2019, an international group of researchers suggested that Simonetta suffered from a pituitary adenoma, i.e. a benign tumor in the pituitary gland.

Over the past seven years, the same team has analyzed more documents about his premature death, in particular records of the symptoms he experienced in his final days. Simonetta’s symptoms and physical characteristics suggest that the pituitary tumor was the cause of death.

Investigators believe he died when the growth of the tumor caused a blockage of blood flow or a pituitary hemorrhagea framework known as pituitary apoplexy.

The team also hypothesizes that a dance, or an alleged rape by Alfonso II of Aragon, Duke of Calabria, may have precipitated an emergency medical.

Military leader, Afonso II of Aragon was Known for cruelty and greatly feared by the population of Naples. An anonymous Venetian source wrote that he was hated by his “cruel insults and insults” and for the most heinous crimes, including “rape virgins, take other women for your pleasure” and practice the “detestable and abominable vice of sodomy”.

There is no proof that Afonso raped Simonetta, and the Venetians were enemies of the Neapolitans and Aragonese, like Afonso, so the report may be biased.

“The letters exchanged between Piero Vespucci and Lorenzo de’ Medici about Simonetta’s last days describe the way in which fell during a dance and then rested in a darkened room, where he suffered terrible headacheshallucinations, vomiting and high fever”, says Domiziana Nardelliinvestigator from Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome and first author of research.

“All of these are symptoms of a rapidly expanding pituitary tumor”, adds the Italian doctor and researcher, in a statement published on .

Other clues about Simonetta’s condition appear in Botticelli’s paintings. In “Allegorical Portrait of a Woman”, she is portrayed lactating, although she did not have children.

“It’s a surprising way to portray herand this, together with changes in facial features, can show real physical symptoms of an adenoma secreting prolactin and growth hormone”, he adds Paolo Pozzilli, researcher at Queen Mary University of London and co-author of the study.

“We confirm this possible diagnosis using a facial recognition algorithm based on a previously trained deep learning model, applied to five portraits of Simonetta”, adds the researcher.

A irregular eye position observed in “The Birth of Venus” corresponds to a strabismusor eye misalignment. Although this characteristic was considered, in art, a trait of piety and beautymay have been caused by Simonetta’s pituitary tumor.

Pozzilli’s next study will now focus on the misalignment of Simonetta’s eyes, in an attempt to add more clues to this mysterious Renaissance death.