This sonnet is the textual focus point for DGR's deep
admiration for Botticelli's work. Its visual counterparts are various
paintings, especially
<xref doc="a.s207.rap">La Pia de' Tolomei</xref>
,
<xref doc="a.s232.raw">La
Ghirlandata</xref>
, and especially
<xref doc="a.s255.raw">La Donna Della Finestra</xref>
. All
of these pictures reflect, and reflect upon, the Botticelli picture that
DGR bought in 1867 at Christie's for twenty pounds, the Portrait of Smerelda Bandinelli (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum). It is now generally ascribed to the school of Botticelli and not to the master himself.
This sonnet references the famous
<xref doc="a.">
<xref doc="a.op74.rap">Primavera</xref>
</xref>
. As the first and last lines indicate, the poem is DGR's version of the theme so splendidly rendered in Swinburne's
The sonnet was written in 1880. The only known manuscript is the undated
First published in the 1881
DGR's note to the sonnet: “The same lady, here
surrounded by the masque of Spring, is evidently the subject of a
portrait by Botticelli formerly in the Portales collection in Paris.
The portrait is inscribed ‘Smeralda Bandinelli’.”
WMR's “My brother bought the portrait
in question. He afterwards sold it to Mr. Constantine Ionides, from
whom it passed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Leading critics will
now have it that the portrait is not the work of Botticelli himself,
but
of someone for whom they have invented the name ‘Amico di
Sandro’”.