Love Story x 2

Born of sea foam and the severed testicles of the god Uranus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty arrives at the island of Cyprus in The Birth of Venus, c. 1485. Above fly Zephyrus and Chloris, blowing roses. To her other side, the Hora (Hour) of Spring, a minor goddess, races to cloak her. Painted by Botticelli (probably as a wedding picture for a Medici bedroom) he chose as his model one Simonetta Vespucci, a local celebrity for her beauty. But how would Botticelli dare show her nude? A hanging art history question…. It was said that she and Giuliano (Lorenzo TM’s handsome brother) were lovers. Sadly, Simonetta died at 23 of TB. On exactly the same day two years later, Pazzi assassins dispatched Giuliano in the Duomo during Sunday Mass, stabbing him 19 times.