Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci the age of 23. Sandro Botticelli was inspired by her features in "The Birth of Venus" and Piero di Cosimo was a passionate admirer. The subject is a young girl portrayed at half length in profile, facing left. Her breasts are bared and a small snake twines around the necklace she is wearing. In the background is an open landscape, arid on the left and lush on the right. The dark clouds are a symbol of her early death, as is the dead tree in the background. At the base of the painting is a border with an inscription that
Punishment of the Sons of Corah sink into it. The children of Korah are spared the fate of their father. The intended message of the painting is clear, no one should doubt the authority of the Pope over the Church. The power of the papacy was constantly being questioned at the time. Punishment of the Sons of Corah The Punishment of the Sons of Corah or Punishment of the Rebels is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed in 1480–1482 in the Sistine Chapel, Rome. On 27 October 1480 Botticelli, together with other Florentine painters, left for Rome, where he had been called