Simonetta Vespucci in the Mirror of Renaissance Art: Image or Art Image?

This article deals with the portraits of the Florentine court lady of the 15th century Simonetta Vespucci. The analysis of the content and meaning of the works of one of the prominent Renaissance artists Sandro Botticelli was conducted on the basis of the study of image methods and particular artistic approaches to the model characteristic. To study the artist’s paintings – portrait and genre – cultural and art studying analysis was used, in particular, a comprehensive examination of the material (hairstyle and accessories) and nonmaterial (ideas and art image) levels of Simonetta Vespucci’s representation as a historical figure and mythological character. The purpose of the article is to reveal in the portrayals of Simonetta Vespucci the signs of art image and image, which provide portraits with different meaning. The research novelty of the article is the interpretation of the hairstyle, clothing, jewellery – as a means of creation in one case typified artistic image, mythical character, in another – the image of a noble court lady, of upper-class woman. The study makes it possible to summarize the historical experience as to modern art image creation and image-making, to understand the mechanisms of introducing this historical experience into the practice of contemporary design. Conclusions. Due to systematic visualization of Simonetta Vespucci’s images, her portraits of the Renaissance period embody different sense characteristics. The underlined details of hairstyles, clothing, accessories in the artist’s portraits (1475, 1475–1480) create the idea of Simonetta as a real person, a noble Florentine woman, court lady, whose image corresponds to the idea of representation of the upper class of Italian society in the fifteenth century. Symbolism and convention of accessories and hairstyles, as well as bringing the image of Simonetta Vespucci to the formula of God-man in line with ancient traditions in the paintings “Primavera”, “The Birth of Venus”, “Venus and Mars”, corresponds to the idea of typification, artistic image, image-ideal in the spirit of myth-creation in the Renaissance period.