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Here in the loggia that looks over the city the Platonic Academy often met, so that these very pillars must have heard the gentle voice of Marsilio Ficino, the witty speech of the young Lorenzo, the beautiful words of Pico della Mirandola, the laughter of Simonetta, the footsteps of Vanna Tornabuoni.
The girls were there, intent upon some commerce of their own, flashing hither and thither over the grass in a flutter of saffron and green and crimson. Simonetta Sandro could see was a little apart, a very tall, isolated figure, clear and cold in a recess of shade, standing easily, resting on one hip with her hands behind her.
Let Maurice Hewlett tell the rest: "They carried dead Simonetta through the streets of Florence, with her pale face uncovered and a crown of myrtle in her hair. People thronging there held their breath, or wept to see such still loveliness; and her poor parted lips wore a patient little smile, and her eyelids were pale violet and lay heavy on her cheek.
And Simonetta walked alone down the way with her head high; but Sandro stepped behind, at the edge of her trailing white robe.... ... The poet was leaning against an ancient alabaster vase, soil-stained, yellow with age and its long sojourn in the loam, but with traces of its carved garlands clinging to it still. He fingered it lovingly as he talked.
Here Giuliano would be Mars, and Venus either one woman in particular whom Florence wished him to marry, or all women, typified by one, trying to lure him from other pre-occupations, such as hunting. To make her Simonetta is to go too far; for she is not like the Simonetta of the other pictures, and Simonetta was but recently married and a very model of fair repute.
She had by this time reached the age of ten, and her espoused husband was exactly thirty-four. Lodovico Sforza Known as Il Moro His birth and childhood Murder of Duke Galeazzo Maria Regency of Duchess Bona Exile of the Sforza brothers Lodovico at Pisa His invasion of Lombardy and return to Milan Death of Cecco Simonetta Flight of Duchess Bona Lodovico Regent of Milan.
That breakfast party at the Camaldoli yesterday! What a contrast the even spring weather with the sun in a cloudless sky, and now this icy dead morning with its battle of wind and bell, fighting, he thought, over the failing breath of some strong man. Man! God, more like. "The God of Nature suffers," he murmured as he turned to his work.... Simonetta had not been there yesterday.
The same figure tradition connects it with Simonetta, the Mistress of Giuliano de' Medici appears again as Judith, returning home across the hill country, when the great deed is over, and the moment of revulsion come, when the olive branch in her hand is becoming a burthen; as Justice, sitting on a throne, but with a fixed look of self-hatred which makes the sword in her hand seem that of a suicide; and again as Veritas, in the allegorical picture of Calumnia, where one may note in passing the suggestiveness of an accident which identifies the image of Truth with the person of Venus.
All the gay court dresses, the rich quaint robes of the fair ladies, helped to train the young painter's fancy for flowing draperies and wonderful veils of filmy transparent gauze. There was one fair lady especially whom Sandro loved to paint the beautiful Simonetta, as she is still called. First he painted her as Venus, who was born of the sea foam.
She threw herself upon her couch, buried her face in the pillows and burst into tears. In one short week word came to Sandro that Simonetta was dead a mysterious quick fever of some kind she had refused all food the doctors could not understand it the fever had just burned her life out!
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