Prudence, after Titian

photo1

This photograph, which I took in the summer, is beaded on The Allegory of Prudence by Titian. Painted at the very end of his life it shows him with his son and nephew. The three generations between them represent the three attributes of the prudent man, or in this case woman. The three animals in the picture are drawn from an Egyptian three-headed god who also represented prudence. Erwin Panofsky wrote extensively on the levels of meaning in this painting which can be seen in the National Gallery.

photo