Copy of the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci by Piero di Cosimo (1642-1521). 1930s Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869-1939)

This painting displays a woman in profile against a dramatic sky and a pastoral landscape. She has an elaborate hairstyle adorned with pearls and jewels, and a snake is coiled around her neck and shoulder, its head resting on her upper chest. The woman is depicted with fair skin and fair hair, her gaze directed to the left. She is partially draped in a red and black striped fabric. The background features a river or body of water, a rocky outcrop with trees, and in the distance, a cityscape with towers and buildings. The overall mood is one of serene beauty and perhaps allegorical representation, given the symbolic nature of the snake.
The subtexts in the painting are rich and open to interpretation. Simonetta Vespucci was a famously beautiful Florentine noblewoman, and this portrait, even as a copy, likely aimed to capture her idealized beauty. The snake is a multi-layered symbol; it can represent fertility and rebirth due to its shedding of skin, but it also carries connotations of temptation, danger, and the allegorical serpent of Eden. Its presence coiled around the womans breast could symbolize either her innate allure or a seductive danger. The elaborate hairstyle and jewelry suggest wealth and status, while the somewhat stark landscape might allude to natures dominion or the fleetingness of earthly beauty. The painting, by virtue of being a later copy, also brings in questions of artistic legacy and the perpetuation of an ideal.