Was Botticelli’s muse felled by a brain tumor? A 550-year mystery reinterpreted
New research reexamines Simonetta Vespucci, Botticelli’s famed model, and suggests a slowly growing pituitary tumor—possibly secreting growth hormone and prolactin—plus a pituitary apoplexy event could explain her sudden death in 1476, with changes in Botticelli’s portraits and contemporary illness accounts supporting the reading and offering an alternative to tuberculosis, though no direct tissue evidence remains.