Nature Communications, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-72566-7.
How did Botticelli’s model really die?
Credit: Sandro Botticelli/Public domain
Credit: Sandro Botticelli/Public domain
One of 15th-century painter Sandro Botticelli’s most famous works is the Birth of Venus, depicting the naked goddess, newly birthed, standing in a giant scallop shell. The model for the painting (disputed by some historians) was allegedly Simonetta Vespucci (nee Cattaneo), a renowned beauty in Florentine high society whom Botticelli greatly admired. He painted her five times before her untimely death in her early 20s. Her open coffin
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