Verrocchio again helped with the costumes; Lucrezia Donati again was Queen of the Tournament; but the Queen of Beauty was the sixteen-year-old bride of Marco Vespuccithe lovely Simonetta Cattaneo, a lady greatly beloved by all and a close friend both of Giuliano and Lorenzo.

Thus Poliziano, or Politian (of whom we shall hear more in the chapter on S. Marco) compares Simonetta to Venus, and in stanzas 100 and 101 speaks of her birth, describing her blown to earth over the sea by the breath of the Zephyrs, and welcomed there by the Hours, one of whom offers her a robe.

Simonetta as Venus has some of the wistfulness of the Madonnas; and not without reason does Botticelli give her this expression, for her days were very short.

In the "Primavera," which we are to see at the Accademia, but which must be described here, we find Simonetta again but we do not see her first.

Simonetta is again the central figure, and never did Botticelli paint more exquisitely than here.

But when the picture was painted both Giuliano and Simonetta were dead:

Simonetta first, of consumption, in 1476, and Giuliano, by stabbing in 1478.

Lorenzo, who was at Pisa during Simonetta's illness, detailed his own physician for her care.

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.

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.

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.

He had saved no money and all his friends were deadPiero de' Medici, Lorenzo, Giuliano, Lucrezia, Simonetta, Filippino Lippi, and Savonarola.

The piazza was the scene also of that famous tournament given by Lorenzo de' Medici for Giuliano in 1474, of which the beautiful Simonetta was the Queen of Beauty, and to which, as I have said elsewhere, we owe Botticelli's two most famous pictures.

Hereabout are many Botticelli school pictures, chief of these the curious girl, called foolishly "La Bella Simonetta," which Mr. Berenson attributes to that unknown disciple of Botticelli to whom he has given the charming name of Amico di Sandro.

His passion for the bewitching Simonetta, "The Star of Genoa," seems to have been the only serious romance of his life, and therein he never aroused Marco de' Vespucci's jealousy by his attentions to his young wife.

Indeed the loves of "Il bel Giulio" and "La bella Simonetta" were the talk and the admiration of the whole city:the Apollo or the Mercury of the New Athens with his VenusVenus de' Medici!

It was celebrated in honour of "La bella Simonetta," with whom the impressionable young prince became daily more and more madly in love.

The loves of Francesco and Bianca at Pratolino recalled those of Giuliano and Simonetta at Fiesole, whilst the wits, and beaux, and beauteous women who consorted there, revived the glories of the Platonic Academy.

He was having a play produced at the Lyceum"The Labyrinth"with Esther Levenson as Simonetta.

Scandalized society flocked to his drawing-room, there to be received by Simonetta herself, wearing the blanched draperies and tragic pearls of the labyrinth he had made for her.

He's writing againa playfor Esther Levenson, who was Simonetta, you remember?" I promised you a ghost story.

"Simonetta," he said, "you are no better than the rest.

Simonetta Perkins.

Simonetta Perkins.