"Alessandro Filipepi dit Botticelli, Figure allégorique dite La Belle Simonetta", n. 26

[Machine translation] In the sheet dedicated to the allegorical female portrait (called 'The Beautiful Simoneta'; Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, inv. n. 936) by Sandro Botticelli, the author addresses some of the historical, technical and methodological issues related to the reading of this crucial work for Botticelli's portraiture, starting from the quality of the invention and execution. The text, despite the imposed space limits, returns to the question, already addressed by Aby Warburg (1893) and never resolved, of the authentic nature of the work, whether it is a portrait or a purely allegorical image with very strong references to ancient mythology, also given the identification with Minerva/Pallade-Athena made possible by the subject's clothing. From a methodological point of view, the sheet indicates an innovative interpretation, enhancing Botticelli's decisive reference to some magnificent 'ideal heads' developed as part of the Verrocchio workshop (and also by Leonardo da Vinci). This indication also includes and consequently explains the obvious revival of antiquity in an allegorical key so present in Florence in the last quarter of the 15th century.