Cristina Vespucci (1459 – 1498) was a well-known Florentine beauty, and a favorite of painters; most notably Sandro Botticelli, who used her as a model for several of his paintings.
Biography
Early life
Cristina was born in Florence, circa 1459.[1]
She was somewhat responsible for starting her cousin Amerigo's career, since when Cristina attended a dinner party one night, she had a conversation with Lorenzo de' Medici and Manfredo Soderini about her cousin.[1]
There, she exaggerated Amerigo's brilliance, saying: "Try Amerigo out. I bet after several years you'll have your shipping company named after him." Lorenzo, charmed by Cristina's beauty, took her advice to heart, and several years later, Amerigo was the first to map out the New World and had it named after him.[1]
Beauty of Firenze
- Cristina: "I told you. I'm not interested."
- Vieri: "Sì. But I am."
- Cristina: "Get in line."
- —Cristina turning away Vieri, one of her many suitors.[src]
From an early age, Cristina caught the eyes of many boys who wanted to become intimate with her.[2]
One of those boys was Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who was encouraged to go speak with Cristina by his elder brother one night in 1476. However, Cristina had no interest in him and walked away. Ezio, who was not used to being turned down by a woman, shadowed Cristina from the rooftops and eventually followed her to her home, where he saw her being confronted by Vieri de' Pazzi.[2]
Vieri de' Pazzi harassing Cristina
Vieri, who had already attempted to impress Cristina on previous occasions, grew impatient when Cristina turned him down yet again. Saying that he was "tired of waiting for her to open her legs on her own", he attempted to sexually assault her. However, he was interrupted by Ezio, who came to Cristina's rescue. The two engaged in a fistfight, where Ezio emerged the victor. As a result, Cristina was thankful of Ezio's actions, and so she began a relationship with him.[2]
Following this, Ezio visited Cristina in her home quite frequently, and was described to be "unbelievably dexterous", as the guards knew that he visited her, but they were never able to catch him trespassing. On one occasion that Ezio slept with Cristina, he was discovered by her enraged father the next morning, who then set the guards on him, demanding his head. Luckily however, Ezio was able to escape.[1]
Ezio giving his pendant to Cristina
In 1476, shortly after the Auditore execution, Cristina helped Ezio give his father, Giovanni, and his brothers, Federico and Petruccio, their proper death rites by burning and setting their bodies adrift on the river Arno.[3]
Afterward, Ezio asked Cristina to come with him, as he needed to leave for Monteriggioni with his family. However, Cristina refused, saying that she could not leave her own family. Ezio understood her decision, so he gave her a crest-shaped pendant to remember him by, before they parted.[2]
Engagement and married life
In 1478, on the insistence of her father, Cristina was engaged to be married to Manfredo Soderini. The day before their wedding, Ezio returned to Florence for the first time in two years, and Cristina was the first person he visited.[2]
Ezio visiting Cristina in 1478
After a short talk, Cristina sadly told him that she had not expected him to return; before revealing her engagement, and breaking Ezio's heart. After being informed that Manfredo was being confronted by people to whom he owed a gambling debt, Ezio rushed to save Cristina's fiancé. Upon killing the gamblers, Ezio dangled Manfredo over a bridge and demanded to know if he truly loved Cristina, to which Manfredo sincerely replied yes.[2]
In response, Ezio ordered that Manfredo stop gambling, and that he should be a good husband to Cristina, otherwise he would hunt him down and kill him. Afterwards, Ezio met with Cristina and kissed her, telling her that he had made sure that Manfredo would remain devoted to her. Though she was heartbroken for losing Ezio, Cristina nevertheless married Manfredo, and they began living together in Florence.[2]
Eight years later, Cristina traveled to Venice to attend the Carnevale with her husband. Noticing her there, Leonardo da Vinci remembered that she and Ezio had been close, and informed the latter of her presence.[2]
Cristina storming away from Ezio
However, Ezio worried that Cristina would not agree to see him after all the years, so he slipped a letter into her pocket and posed as her husband, requesting her to meet him alone in an alley. Cristina unknowingly obliged and the two kissed, with Cristina believing Ezio to be Manfredo, as he was wearing a mask.[2]
After discovering the truth, she yelled at Ezio for kissing her, both because she was already married and because she had not seen Ezio in so long. Cristina told Ezio that she had loved him before, and would rather have married him, but it was now too late. She angrily told him to never look for her again and left.[2]
Death
- "I wish... we could have had... a second chance."
- ―Cristina's final words to Ezio.[src]
In 1494, Girolamo Savonarola took control of Florence after Lorenzo de' Medici's death. Since he declared that all Renaissance material was evil, and that the city should revert to the medieval times, Savonarola instigated the Bonfire of the Vanities.[1]
Cristina dying in Ezio's arms
In 1498, Savonarola's fanatics infiltrated Cristina and Manfredo's home in order to kill Manfredo. He attempted to fend them off, but he was overpowered, and left gravely injured. Fortunately, Cristina managed to escape, though she was soon cornered by the fanatics.[2]
At this point, Ezio, who had heard about what had happened from a dying Manfredo, came to her aid. The fanatics, who were taunting Cristina for the rich fineries she owned, were startled as Ezio came up behind them and yelled for Cristina to run. Though he killed all of the soldiers, Cristina had already been mortally wounded, and was slowly dying.[2]
Once she could run no further, Cristina collapsed in a courtyard, and Ezio soon located her once more, holding her in his arms. After showing Ezio the pendant that she had kept with her the past twenty-two years, and telling him that she wished they could have had another chance together, Cristina perished in his embrace.[2]
Trivia
- Even though Cristina was married for around sixteen years, and saw Ezio only for a few short minutes once every several years, she admitted that she still loved him more than her own husband.
- In Assassin's Creed: Renaissance, Cristina's surname is noted as Calfucci rather than Vespucci.
- This was amended in the novelization of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
- Cristina featured in several repressed memories during Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which were unlocked when Desmond Miles achieved certain levels of synchronization with Ezio's life via the Animus.
- To start each repressed Cristina memory, Ezio must interact with a woman who closely resembled Cristina. Each time, the woman was doing something that related to the repressed memory. For instance, with the memory during Carnevale, the woman in Rome would be browsing at a mask shop.
- Though Ezio witnessed Cristina's death in Brotherhood, he was only later informed of her death by Niccolò Machiavelli in Renaissance.
- Cristina's eye color appeared to have changed from blue to brown in Brotherhood, although in some memories her eyes remained blue.
- In Renaissance, the pendant Ezio gave Cristina was decidedly different from the one in-game: instead of a golden cross with jewels, the novel depicted it as a simple, yet heavy silver pendant with the engraved initial 'A'.
- Ezio briefly mentioned Cristina in a letter to Claudia during Assassin's Creed: Revelations. He wrote, "After the death of Cristina, something withered in me."
Gallery
References
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