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Grace Anna (31:45)

Unfortunately, Botticelli's painted banner does not survive today, but we do have at least one written record of the joust that mentions Simonetta. Explicitly written in 1475, the Medicis historian Poliziano wrote a poem about the joust titled Le Stanzae per Legiostre, in which Simonetta appears twice. As Poliziano wrote of Simonetta, amongst her other excellent gifts, she has so sweet and attractive a manner that all those who have any familiar acquaintance with her or to whom she pays the slightest attention think themselves the sole objects of her affection. Yet no woman really envies her. But all give her unstinted praise. It seems too an extraordinary thing that so many men should love her to distraction without exciting jealousy. Poliziano's descriptions of Simonetta present her as the ideal courtly lady. She is both sensually appealing and virtuous, attractive and respectable, desired but not envied. We see in Poliziano's poems the beginnings of Simonetta being transformed into an icon of both sensual fantasy as well as unparalleled purity. Her legacy, even before her tragic end, was already taking on a life of its own. We can imagine that Poliziano and Simonetta would have known each other personally. As the Medici's own historian, Poliziano was living in the Medici household at the time he wrote this poem. It's more than likely that Simonetta was introduced to Poliziano, if not by Giuliano himself, then certainly through her husband's affiliation with the medicine. This means that when Poliziano wrote these verses on Simonetta, he would have had first hand experience of Simonetta herself. This is especially crucial given that Poliziano's poem is the only poem about Simonetta that was written in her own lifetime. These verses provide a rare insight into Simonetta as a real woman, not just a fictionalized version of her. Poliziana would not have known it at the time, but Simonetta would die just one year after he published these famous lines on her. How did Simonetta herself feel about Poliziano's poem? Was she flattered? Did she enjoy the poem? Or did she feel that Poliziano described her with impossibly high standards? That he had projected a fantasy onto her? Did she feel rightly represented? Though we sadly do not know Simonetta's feelings about Poliziano's poem, it seemed that Giuliano's public display of affection prompted a lot of feelings around Florence regarding his and Simonetta's suspected relationship. Soon after the tournament, the burgeoning love between Simonetta and Giuliano de Medici once again had the entire city abuzz with gossip. And Giuliano certainly fueled the flames by continuing to act as Simonetta's chivalrous lover. Publicly. It was believed by many that after the joust, Simonetta and Giuliano became officially romantically involved. This theory may have been strengthened by the fact that Simonetta and her husband Marco had not produced any offspring, despite having been married for over five years. At the time, childless marriages were viewed suspiciously, and it made the prospect of an affair all the juicier. Of course, there are a multitude of reasons outside of infidelity that could explain Simonetta's lack of children. It's possible that either she or Marco were infertile, or that their union, which folklore painted as love at first sight, was more grimly the result of two families making a political alliance and was loveless and cold. Simonetta and Marco's lack of children is yet another mystery of Simonetta's life that we are left to speculate. Could Simonetta have faced fertility issues? Or did she recoil at the thought of being intimate with Marco? Was she devastated over their inability to have children? Or was it a deliberate choice, an act of defiance? Did Simonetta even want to be a mother? And was her and Juliano's relationship after the joust intimate? Or did it remain within the confines of courtly love? Was it real or performative? Mutual or one sided? We have frustratingly little surviving evidence to answer these questions. We may never know if Simonetta and Giuliano's relationship ever became an official affair, nor how Simonetta really felt about Giuliano and his public acts of affection. Tragically, Simonetta's own voice and feelings have been lost to history. And Simonetta's perspective was also lost to her own tragic end. In April of 1476, Simonetta became gravely ill. The usually bright young woman was suddenly confined to her bed, shaking with weakness, unable to sleep due to persistent coughs, and with a complete lack of appetite. When Lorenzo de Medici, who was away in Pisa on business, got news of Simonetta's illness, he immediately set over his family doctor to Simonetta's side. Though this generous act highlights just how much Simonetta meant to Florence's ruling family, it did cause tension regarding her care, as documented in letters from Simonetta's father in law to Lorenzo, Simonetta's own nurse and the Medici doctor disagreed as to what illness Simonetta was fighting and what her appropriate illness treatment should be. The two argued and debated with one another intensely. Simonetta's nurse believing Simonetta had tuberculosis, and the Medici doctor firmly contesting that diagnosis. In the end, despite their varying opinions, the pair agreed on a treatment plan, knowing that Simonetta's condition was far too severe to waste time over their battling egos, and that more important than the treatment itself, it was imperative that Simonetta remain in a peaceful environment in which she could receive consistent care. As Simonetta's father in law said in a letter, little indeed can be done for her in the matter of medicine, but the greatest care is necessary. Though the treatment seemed to improve Simonetta's condition initially, her father in law, noting that her appetite returned and that she was able to sleep more deeply. Her upswing in health did not last long. Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici both followed Simonetta's sickness closely and waited for news with bated breath. It was soon clear that Simonetta had only a matter of days. In the dark hours of the night on April 26, Simonetta Vesp Gucci took her final breaths. She passed away at the mere age of 23. At the peak of her youth and potential. How did Simonetta feel as she took her remaining breaths? Did she have any regrets? Did she think about how, just a year before, she watched Giuliano de Medici dedicate a joust in her honor from for all of Florence to see? Who would she miss the most? Was she afraid? Or was she overcome with a sense of peace? Lorenzo de Medici was informed of Simonetta's death by one of his assistants, who wrote in a letter that survives. The blessed soul of Lady Simonetta has, I have just, just heard, passed into paradise. Her end, it may be said, in truth, is another triumph of death. And indeed, if you had seen her lying dead, she would have seemed to you, my lord, no less beautiful and attractive than when she was in life. Upon receiving the heartbreaking news, Lorenzo wrote in his journal. Suddenly a brilliant star shot out of the horizon and gleaming in the bright sunshine, I knew that it was the blessed Simonetta's spirit which had transformed the shining constellations of the heavens. In the days following her passing, Simonetta was given a grand public funeral. Her body was carried in an open casket from her home all the way to the church of Ognissanti, where she was to be buried. As legend goes, Simonetta was dressed in her favorite golden robe and was placed on the softest of cushions, surrounded by spring flowers. Onlookers remarked that her body looked as flawless as a block of marble. As Simonetta made her final journey to her resting place, she would trailed by a long procession of mourners. At the front, just behind, her husband, Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici walked silently side by side, as they laid their eyes on la bella Simonetta one last time. Lorenzo de Medici ordered the great bell of Florence's Duomo to be rung in Simonetta's honor and for all of Florence to be reminded of their collective grief. Poets, artists and philosophers alike all began to pay tribute to Simonetta. As Lorenzo de Medici himself wrote in a All of Florence were grieved for her and lamented the bitterness of her death and all the Florentines of talent, as was fitting for such a public bereavement Bereavement variously expressed their grief, some in verse and some in prose and each attempted to praise her according to his own ability. But none mourned Simonetta more deeply than Giuliano de Medici. Swallowed by both shock and grief, Giuliano could not believe that just a year after his victory at the joust, his precious Simonetta was unfairly taken from this world. Friends tried to console Giuliano, priests tried to soothe him by assuring him that Simonetta was watching over him in heaven and poets wrote him heartfelt poems. But Giuliano's heart was broken beyond repair. It is said that his grief was so intense that the death of Simonetta aged the young Giuliano. Remarkably, Botticelli painted a portrait of Giuliano in the period following Simonetta's death. In Botticelli's portrait we see a forlorn Giuliano looking down in dismay. He has the defeated air of a man who has suffered a great loss. And in the corner of the canvas Botticelli included a turtle dove, a sign of both loyalty, a clear allude to Giuliano's all consuming grief for Simonetta. In another surviving letter written by Simonetta's father in law, this time addressed to Giuliano's mother, he described Giuliano's state as inconsolable. As the letter describes when the blessed soul that was your Giuliano used to visit my house. He said to me many times that he was the unhappiest young man not only in Florence but in all of Italy. I had such pity for him. He aroused such sorrow that to make him happy and give me pleasure, both my son Marco and I did all we could to please him as his kindness, correctness and gentle breeding deserved. We gave him all of Simonetta's garments and her portrait. Marco and I did this all with affection. The letter is one of the few direct sources we have attesting to Giuliano's deep love for Simonetta. The fact that Simonetta's husband and father in law gave Giuliano all of Simonetta's clothes is not to be overlooked. It is a testament to both the extent of Giuliano's care for Simonetta and and his immense grief. And more than this, Simonetta's husband clearly had enough respect for Giuliano and his adoration for Simonetta to give him all of her remaining garments. We can imagine Giuliano holding Simonetta's clothing, desperately trying to feel close to her again. It should be noted that the letter also mentions A portrait of Simonetta. This portrait, whom many believe was painted by Botticelli, unfortunately no longer exists today. Giuliano lived the rest of his life in honor of Simonetta's memory, until he met his own tragic end. Exactly two years to the day of Simonetta's death, on April 26, 1478, Giuliano de Medici was attending Sunday service at the Florence Cathedral. What should have been a very typical Sunday service suddenly turned bloody. In the middle of the service, a group of insurgents entered the cathedral and began to attack Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici. Though Lorenzo managed to escape relatively unscathed, Giuliano received a devastating 19 stabs, one of which was a fatal blow to his head. Giuliano died in a pool of his own blood splayed out on the cathedral's floor. He was only 25 years old at the time of his death. Giuliano was killed in what later would be called the Pazzi Conspiracy, one of the most important and crushing events in all of Florence's history. Giuliano's death took place two years to the exact day of Simonetta's own untimely end. A coincidence that is hard to ignore was Giuliano honoring the second anniversary of Simonetta's death as he walked into church that Sunday, not knowing that he would soon be joining her in heaven? Could their shared day of death have occurred greater spiritual consequence? Were Simonetta and Giuliano's spirits intertwined? Would Simonetta have been waiting, hand stretched out lovingly, to receive Giuliano in heaven? The coincidence was not lost on Giuliano's contemporaries, and the people of Florence began to see Giuliano and Simonetta's deaths as connected. As the city mourned Giuliano, remembrances of Simonetta also began to pour in. With Giuliano's death came a resurgence of commemoration for Simonetta, his beloved, who people believed was finally reunited with Giuliano in heaven. In the years that followed the Pazzi conspiracy, there was a surge of interest in Simonetta. This is particularly intriguing considering that Simonetta's father in law was actually accused of taking part in the conspiracy and was thrown in prison for two years. Might her father in law's implication have had to do with Simonetta? Did he join the insurgents after years of resentment that Giuliano had been involved with his son's wife? Whether her father in law was innocent or not, his connection to the murder of Giuliano had little to no impact on the revival of Simonetta's legacy. Much to the contrary, Giuliano's death only spurred what is now referred to as the cult of Simonetta. A great number of poems about Simonetta written around this time still survive today. In many of these poems, Simonetta is compared to the female figures from the work of both pet Dante. Building on the fantastical nature of these literary traditions. In both Petrarch and Dante's work, stories of beloved noblewoman suffering early deaths were prevalent. And poets drew parallels between the tragic deaths of Dante's Laura and Beatrice and Simonetta's own untimely end. A poet of the time named Bernardo Pulci wrote the following verses on Simonetta. Thus she joins the worth faithful souls. Heaven admires her beauty as whoever saw her first on earth admired her. And thus among the planets heaven and earth, she is so prized that everyone who seeks her is made happy. But Jove has drawn her to his heights. Behold Laura and Beatrice, who make room for her in their eternal cloisters like a new phoenix flown into heaven. In other poems, Simonetta is described as a goddess like figure, a nymph that transforms the land that she walks upon into a garden of delight. Her presence is magical and we see the beginnings of Simonetta being given superhuman qualities. With her arms outstretched, she can open the heavens. With her magnanimous smile, she can outshine even the sun. And as one poem states, even breezes hush to hear her voice. Her teeth are described as pearls and her beauty is otherworldly. In these poems, Simonetta is the epitome of feminine perfection and divinity. We also see in these poems Simonetta being turned into a symbol of Florence's greatness. After the Pazzi conspiracy, the people of Florence needed a symbol of unity to hold onto. And Simonetta was the perfect metaphor for Florence's glory. Poets began to imagine that Simonetta was Florence's representation in heaven and that she was protecting the city from above. And no poet clung onto this idea more than Lorenzo de Medici himself. In his collections of sonnets called Comento, Lorenzo uses the image of Simonetta to signify civic harmony and a new age of cultural achievements under Lorenzo's rule. The resurrection of Simonetta's legacy was simultaneous with the resurrection of Florence's culture, cultural reputation. And in writing his own poems about Simonetta, Lorenzo positioned himself as the great poet of Florence's new golden age. Lorenzo dedicated a quarter of his entire anthology to his poems about Simonetta. And it is these poems that open and close the collection. It's clear that Lorenzo placed a great amount of importance on his poems about Simonetta as the most powerful man in Florence. He did not have the pressure of other poets to impress his superiors. And reeling from the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy and the bloody murder of his brother, Lorenzo would have had far greater issues on his mind than Simonetta's death. Lorenzo's decision to write of Simonetta and give her poem such prominence in his work must have come from a place of both immense respect for Simonetta and and his own personal interest. Lorenzo saw in Simonetta a unique opportunity to reclaim his own reputation as both poet and leader. And of course, with this resurgence of interest in Simonetta came not only poems, but some of the greatest painted masterpieces from this period feature Simonetta's image. Most famously, Simonetta is believed to be the model for Botticelli's two most revered works, Birth of Venus and Primavera. She is also believed to be the subject of a number of portraits produced by Botticelli's workshop, as well as a portrait by fellow famed artist Piero di Cosimo. The first work of Botticelli's that we find Simonetta in is his beloved Primavera, painted in 1480. In Primavera we find a luscious scene set in an abundant garden. In the center we see the figure of Venus gazing at the viewer with a tilted head and raised hand. To her left are the three Graces who dance in a circular motion and Mercury, the messenger God who plucks an orange from a tree to Venus. Right we see a nymph named Chloris being transformed into Flora, the goddess of spring. And it is this figure of Flora that Botticelli gave Simonetta's likeness. Garbed in a floral gown that seems to burst with real flowers and vines, Flora reaches into the folds of her dress and grabs a handful of roses. On top of her perfectly wavy hair rests a crown of flowers and around her neck a floral wreath. We are reminded of the poetic verses on Simonetta which describe a goddess like figure who with each step brings life to the soil. Placed in an orange orchard, a well known symbol of the Medici family, we are also reminded of Simon Simonetta's fruitful relationship with Florence's ruling family and perhaps more specifically, of the private moment of affection between Simonetta and Giuliano in the Medici orange orchard that, according to legend, Botticelli stumbled upon. Simonetta. As Flora stares vacantly just beyond the viewer, giving her a distanced feel. Her breathtaking presence is seen, seen and yet is just out of our grasp. Painted four years after her death, Simonetta has an almost angelic like appearance, as if she is not quite of our world. This may have been Botticelli's subtle allusion to Simonetta's own passing. And with her pockets full of roses, she also safeguards the secrets of her own life and leaves us with an insatiable yearning for more. Painted five years later, Botticelli forever immortalized Simonetta again in arguably his most famous work, the Birth of Venus. Here, Simonetta takes center stage as Venus herself. Being birthed from the sea and gently guided to land by the wind, she stands on a giant scallop shell while placing her right hand to her own heart. Her long, billowing hair is caught in a gust of wind as she gathers the ends to politely cover her genitals. Here, Simonetta is every inch the goddess of love. And the goddess of love is every inch Simonetta. Simonetta's unrivaled beauty comes to life as she stands resurrected from the heavens to grace us with her charm. And yet we see the same vacant stare as in Primavera. Simonetta. As Venus stares off to the side, bypassing our gaze, she feels neither here nor there, an almost ghostly presence that once again evades our grasp. In this way, Botticelli's painted portrayals of Simonetta capture the same sense of mystery surrounding her life itself. A life that feels as distant as her stare. A life that we can never fully know. There also exists a series of five portraits made around the same time by Botticelli's studio that are believed to be of Simonetta. In these portraits, Simonetta is portrayed in profile with her hair fashioned ornately. In one, Simonetta is garbed in drapery, giving her a goddess like presence. In another, her hair twists and turns like snakes. And in one more, Simonetta wears a cameo known to have belonged to the Medici, an association that the artist wanted to make clear. Though each portrait differs slightly in some of its detail, there are a number of consistencies that give Simonetta's portrait a signature mark. In all five of Simonetta's portraits, her physical beauty and sexual appeal is undeniable. Her milky, smooth skin looks so soft that you're tempted to stroke her face. Her long, golden auburn hair looks as if it's just been tousled by a gentle wind. And her clothing tastefully frames her feminine curves. Though she is in profile, it feels as though at any moment she might turn towards the viewer. And yet, though she tantalizes us with her beauty, gracefully hinting at her sexuality, she remains both unattainable and aloof. Her clothes, though framing her large bust, are perfectly in place. Her eyes, which glitter with charm, evade our gaze and her stare is once again distant. In these portraits, Simonetta has the unique ability to tempt without being crass, to engage just enough to bait our interest but evade full understanding and to be both sensual and chaste.

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Grace Anna (60:52)

It is hard for us to know how realistic these portraits are. And if we are looking at the real Simonetta or idealized versions of her memory made over five years after her death, these portraits could very well be posthumous inventions based on Simonetta's large legacy. Though we cannot know how realistic these portraits of Simonetta are, it is clear that Botticelli's studio wanted to convey the impression of a portrait of a specific woman. So how did scholars come to identify Simonetta in Botticelli and his workshop's works? Many have drawn parallels between the poems we know were written about Simonetta and Botticelli's paintings, which were made in the same period of time. These poems and paintings share many of the same imagery, and there is a clear interplay between these written and painted descriptions. As Simonetta was making a splash amongst Florence's creative circles, why wouldn't the city's favorite painter and his workshop also want to join in on the fun? And we do have some more concrete evidence to support Simonetta's identity in Botticelli's works. Giorgio Vasari, whose famous book Lives of the Artists is one of our best primary sources from the Italian Renaissance, describes a portrait by Botticelli of Giuliano de Medici's mistress, which many have assumed to be Simonetta. But perhaps the greatest evidence we have is the personal connection between Botticelli and Simonetta herself. We know that Botticelli's home and workshop were on the very same street where Simonetta lived. Botticelli was working and living just a few times doors down from Simonetta's own home. It is safe to assume that Simonetta and Botticelli would have known each other personally and run into each other regularly. Were Simonetta and Botticelli more than just neighbors? Could Simonetta have caught Botticelli's eye? Could they have befriended each other? Or did Botticelli join the long list of admirers, Simonetta infatuated by her beauty and charm? While we may not know the exact nature of their connection, we do know that Botticelli would have had enough of a direct relationship with Simonetta to motivate her presence in his works. And it evidently motivated more than just these paintings. When Botticelli prepared his will many years later, he specifically asked that he be buried at his greatest muse's feet. Over 30 years after Simonetta's own death, Botticelli was buried in the same church of Ognissanti where both he and Simonetta rest together today. Why would Botticelli ask to be buried alongside Simonetta if she wasn't extremely important to both his life and legacy? There's no denying the immense impact Simonetta must have had on Botticelli's life and career. So much so that after 30 years after her own death, Botticelli wished to rest eternally at her feet, a final and permanent act of devotion. There is another portrait of Simonetta made by fellow artist of the time, Piero di Cosimo, that we can more assuredly identify as Simonetta. The painting depicts a woman in profile with her hair styled with expensive pearls and jewels. Though she wears a shawl around her shoulders, she is bare breasted, making Di Cosimo's portrait of Simonetta the most overtly erotic to date. Upon her neck is not just a golden necklace, but also a snake slithering around her while its tongue juts out of its mouth. She is both divinely beautiful and lethal, enchanting us with her charm and then warning us of the follies of sin, reminding the viewer of the very thin line between our higher and lower tendencies. Though made 14 years after Simonetta's death, the portrait does include an inscription of Simonetta's name on its ledge, confirming her identity as subject. While some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the inscription, proposing that it could have been added much later on, recent technical analysis does verify that the inscription was painted within the same time period as the painting itself, indicating that it very likely is original. That is not to say that di Cosimo's portrait is an accurate portrayal of Simonetta the real woman. Piero di Cosimo was only 15 years old when Simonetta tragically passed away. While it's possible he remembered her image over a decade later, it's more likely that he based his portrait on the poetic and pictorial depictions made in the period after her death, when there was a heightened interest in Simonetta. As with the portraits made by Botticelli's studio, Piero di Cosimo's portrait of Simonetta likely teeters between reality and fantasy. She is both an individual and mythical goddess, factual and fantastical. And we are looking just as much as Simonetta the woman as we are the artist's own imagination, leaving us with the returning who was the real Simonetta? And how can we separate her from these male fantasies? In order to answer this question, we need to distinguish to the best of our ability between the real life of Simonetta Vespucci and the life her myth almost immediately took on following her death. With her death, Simonetta was transformed from a mortal woman to a divine being. As scholar Judith Rachel Allen wrote, Simonetta's death perfected her, freeing her from the taint of earthly sin. And more than this, Simonetta became an important cultural symbol of Florence. Her death took place at an opportune time, when Florence was in desperate need of a cultural revitalization and provided the perfect blank slate onto which poets and artists alike could project their artistic agendas. The though her life came to a tragic end, her death brought with it the birth of an immense cultural boom that not only turned Simonetta into a star, but became one of the most creatively abundant periods in Western history. So how do we differentiate the line between myth and fact? How do we attempt to honor Simonetta's own life in the way she herself would have wanted to be remembered? And how do we give Simonetta back agency in the story of her own life? Researchers have begun revisiting what surviving facts we do have about Simonetta in hopes of better understanding her as a historical rather than mythological figure. And some of this new research has brought about experimental and fascinating studies in 2019, a group of medical historians examined the postmortem portraits of Simonetta and proposed that, contrary to long held belief, Simonetta may not have died of tuberculosis after all. These medical historians argue that her portraits actually show evidence that Simonetta suffered from a pituitary adenoma, secreting prolactin, which led to the growth of tumors and eventually her death. This groundbreaking research not only gives us new insight into Simonetta's medical history, but lends to a more in depth understanding of the circumstances surrounding her premature death. And perhaps the most literal way to better understand the real Simonetta is by looking at her own bloodline. When Simonetta Sacristiforo Catania Della Volta was 10 years old, her grandmother gave her a print of Botticelli's Birth of Venus and told her that she was related to the woman in the picture. Simonetta della Volta is indeed the verified descendant of Simonetta Vespucci, not only sharing her first name, but also her beauty. If you look at a picture of Simonetta della Volta, she has an uncanny resemblance to the Simonetta Vespucci captured in the canvases of Botticelli and Di Cosimo, a resemblance not lost on her. As Simonetta della Volta shared, I sometimes imagine Simonetta walking down the same streets that I do now. I find it very interesting that I ended up living in Florence just like she did, since she came from Genoa and in the Borgo 1 Santi area where she is buried. And to deepen the connection, Simonetta della Volta now works in the arts, sharing the same affiliation with the art world that Simonetta Vespucci had herself. But we have only scratched the surface of better understanding Simonetta as a real woman of history and strip away the layers upon layers of myth surrounding her. Simonetta deserves to be honored as a historical figure in her own right. My hope is that further research will be devoted to uncovering information on Simonetta within the context of her own lived experience, and that the answers to so many of our questions today can one day be revealed. So the next time you look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, think of Simonetta Vespucci, of her important family lineages on both her mother and father's side. Of her childhood in Genoa playing amongst the city's grandest palaces. Of her family's exile to Piombino, where Simonetta matured from a girl to woman amongst the coastal sea. Of her politically advantageous marriage to Marco Vespucci, of her move to Florence, where her beauty began to turn heads. Of Simonetta capturing The heart of Florence's two most powerful men, Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici. Of the public joust that Giuliano fought in Simonetta's honor. Of the mysterious fact that Simonetta never had any children. Of her tragic end, her life, taken cruelly at the mere age of 23. And lastly, of the fortuitous fate her death would bring Simonetta's transformation into star boredom that Simonetta herself was not alive to bear witness to. And though her life is filled with mystery and we are left to intuit many of the details of her lived experience, there is no denying the incredulous impact Simonetta had on the leaders and artists of her time, sparking the cultural boom that we today appreciate as the Italian Renaissance. It is remarkable that the death of a young Genoese woman would inspire Florence's greatest artists and poets so much that they poured their whole energy into creating works centered on her. That some of the most revered works of the period feature Simonetta's image. And whatever the exact nature of Simonetta's relationship with Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici was, both men clearly held immense respect for her and went out of their way to associate themselves with her. Despite her life being unfairly cut short, her spirit became ingrained in the city's consciousness and her death brought about the birth of one of the greatest periods of creative innovation that the world has ever seen. And though she possessed a once in a century beauty, beauty and charm, Simonetta was no mythological goddess, but rather a real woman who by the magic of her own making, won the hearts of all of Florence and forever changed the course of its history. And as we give Simonetta back her own voice, we are reminded that Simonetta stands for all women throughout history whose voices have been stripped away. Simonetta is one of countless women whose personal stories have been lost to misogyny and male fantasy. As we rightfully return Simonetta to the role of protagonist in her own story, we honor the innumerable other women who deserve that same right. As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, the death of a beautiful woman is most poetic topic in the world. But today we challenge Poe and shift our focus back to the marvelous life that this beautiful woman once lived. I hope you have enjoyed this episode on Simonetta Vespucci. I've included images, resources and suggestions for further research reading on the artmuse website and Instagram. Artmuse is produced by Kula Production Company. Today's episode was written by me, your host, Grace Anna. Stay tuned as I continue to share the stories of the women behind some of the world's most important works of art. Until next time. Bye for now.

Meisha Brown (75:13)

Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and Ill Media hi, I'm Meisha Brown, and this is the Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails and blunders of all time. Like quibbing.

Grace Anna (75:36)

It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it.

Meisha Brown (75:40)

And the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.

Advertiser (75:43)

Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the.

Grace Anna (75:46)

Ground, there's something wrong with the movie.

Meisha Brown (75:49)

Find out what happens when Massive Heights turns into major fiasco. Enjoy the Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the Big Flop early and ad free on Wondery Plus. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com Plus.