Channeling Botticelli

Simonetta Canttaneo de Candia Vespucci- (1453 �" 1476)
The face of the Italian Renaissance

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La bella Simonetta
looking to the distant
not at me
at the London National Gallery

Born in that stern Ligurian region
up above the sea
where mighty Neptune beats against the rocks
there, like Venus, born among the waves.

A noble beauty wanted by all
Giuliano de Medici carried his banner
adorned with her likeness
helmeted Pallas Athena; “La Sans Pareille”

Loved from afar by a poor Sandro
who painted her banner and her face
a portrait of a woman
at the workshop.

And there I stared as did all others
enchanted by her beauty
around her neck the crest of Nero
her hair in curls draped over her perfection

imagining besotted Sandro’s brush
caressing a surface; painting one he loved
but could not have;
wondering if he ever dreamed

I would see her face in London
in Berlin and I would think of him
recalling perhaps his anguish
and his sorrow

for she would pass at twenty two
and he would live for many years
requesting only to be buried where he now lays
at the feet of his Venus.

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