Titian, 'An Allegory of Prudence', about 1550

An Allegory of Prudence

Titian

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Three male heads at different stages of life are paired with the heads of three animals: a wolf, a lion and a dog. The Latin inscription divided to correspond to the three heads translates as: ‘Learning from Yesterday, Today acts prudently lest by his action he spoil Tomorrow.’ The meaning and purpose of this painting has been the subject of much debate.

The painting may be an allegory of Prudence. However, the composition was extensively revised during painting. The animal heads were added at a late stage and are fairly summarily executed. The execution of the heads, similarly, is of varied finish and quality, with the central one being the most subtle and vibrant.

Some observers have seen the intervention of a studio assistant, especially in the head at the right and the animals. Such variety of finish is not unusual for Titian himself, however, and it is hard to imagine why he would have called upon assistants for such an unusual and comparatively simple composition.

In-depth

Three male heads at different stages of life are paired with three animal heads: the elderly bearded man in the red cap with a wolf; the middle-aged man with a lion; and the young man with a dog. A Latin inscription divided to correspond to the three heads is written above them. It translates as: ‘Learning from Yesterday, Today acts prudently lest by his action he spoil Tomorrow.’ The meaning and purpose of this painting has been the subject of much debate.

Valeriano’s Hieroglyphica, published in Venice in 1556, proposed as an emblem of Prudence a serpent with the three heads of a dog, a wolf and a lion. So it may be that the painting is an allegory of Prudence. However, the composition was extensively revised during painting. The animal heads were added at a late stage and are fairly summarily executed.

X-ray images and infrared reflectography reveal that the composition was painted over a different figure, seemingly wearing a wide collar and seen from the back looking to the left. Furthermore, alterations were made to the head of the old man at left during its execution. The execution of the heads is of varied finish and quality, with the central one being the most subtle and vibrant. Some observers have seen the intervention of a studio assistant, especially in the head at the right, as well as the animals. Such variety of finish is not unusual for Titian, however, and it is hard to imagine why he would have called upon assistants for such an unusual and comparatively simple composition.

The somewhat inexpressive young man closely resembles the heads added at a late stage, perhaps by an assistant, to Titian’s Vendramin Family. The painting has generally been considered a late work, but is not inconsistent with Titian’s painting style of the late 1540s, for example the Sisyphus in the Prado Museum, Madrid, and the central head is similar to Titian’s work of that period, notably the Vendramin Family.

The painting is lit from the right, which is unusual in the work of a right-handed artist, suggesting that it may have been made for a specific location, and perhaps meant to be seen from afar. One possibility is that it was intended for the attic frieze of the Camerino (chamber) of Gabriel Vendramin, recorded in contemporary sources as by Titian, where a heraldic composition and symbolic subject would have been appropriate. A triple head but with two young faces is carved on one of the pilasters on the facade of Palazzo Vendramin at S. Fosca in Venice. It is also possible that the painting was made as a cover for a portrait (a Venetian innovation that was popular in north-east Italy from the 1520s), or possibly even as the door of a cupboard.

It has been suggested that the painting may be autobiographical in nature and represent Titian (left), his son Orazio (centre) and nephew Marco Vecellio (right), which would date the picture to the late 1560s. However, although the three heads match the relative ages of the three members of Titian’s family fairly well, they don’t especially look like them.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: An Allegory of Prudence
Artist: Titian
Artist dates: active about 1506; died 1576
Date made: about 1550
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 75.5 × 68.4 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by Betty and David Koetser, 1966
Inventory number: NG6376
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

Alfred de Rothschild
Frame: 16th-century Venetian Frame

Provenance

Pierre Crozat before his death in 1740; Duc de Tallard before his death in 1756; lot 84 in the Duc de Tallard’s posthumous sale, 23 March–3 April 1756, where bought by Giovanni Gasparo Menabuoni of Paris and Florence; Lucien Bonaparte by 1814; no. 28 in Bonaparte’s sale of 25 December 1823–15 January 1824, Paris; with Samuel Woodburn in London by March 1826; the 4th Earl of Aberdeen before 1828; by descent to the 7th Earl; still his property in 1901; Alfred de Rothschild, by 1917; on his death on 31 January 1918 inherited by Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, by whom sold at Christie’s on 31 May 1918, lot 157, where bought by ‘Roberts’ for Francis Howard. Howard’s posthumous sale 25 November 1955 (lot 44), where bought by Legatt. Presented in April 1966 by David and Betsy Koetser.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

Titian’s Triumph of Love

The National Gallery (London)

21 July 2009 - 20 September 2009
2013

Titian

Scuderie del Quirinale

5 March 2013 - 16 June 2013
2021

The Shape of Time (La forma del tempo)

Museo Poldi Pezzoli

13 May 2021 - 27 September 2021

Bibliography

1727

L.D. de Saint-Gelais, Description des tableaux du Palais Royal: Avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages: Dédiée à Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans, premier prince du sang, Paris 1727
1824

W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
1873

L. Duvaux, Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux, Paris 1873
1883

C., 'Correspondance d'Angleterre: Exposition de tableaux anciens à Edimbourg', Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité, 1883, pp. 251-2
1924

D. Hadeln, 'Some Little-Known Works by Titian', The Burlington Magazine, XLV/259, 1924, pp. 179-80
1926

E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, 'A Late Antique Religious Symbol in Works by Holbein and Titian', The Burlington Magazine, XLIX, 1926, pp. 177-81
1930

E. Panofsky, 'Eine tizianische Allegorie', in Hercules am Scheidewege und andere antike Bildstoffe in der neueren Kunst, Hamburg 1930, pp. 1-35
1933

W. Suida, Tiziano: 304 tavole in fototipia, Rome 1933
1936

H. Tietze, Titian: Leben und Werk, 2 vols, Vienna 1936
1950

H. Tietze, Titian the Paintings and Drawings, London 1950
1956

J. Hill, 'An Identification of Titian's Allegory of Prudence and Some Medici-Stuart Affinities', Apollo, XLIII, 1956, pp. 40-1
1957

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
1957

B. Shahn, The Shape of Content, Cambridge MA 1957
1960

F. Valcanover, Tutta la pittura di Tiziano, Milan 1960
1962

E. Panofsky, Il significato nelle arti visive, Turin 1962
1966

On View: The Guide to Museum and Gallery Acquisitions in Great Britain, London 1966
1966

F. Yates, The Art of Memory, London 1966
1966

M. Milner Kahr, 'Titian, the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" Woodcuts and Antiquity', Gazette des beaux-arts, LXVII, 1966, pp. 118-27
1967

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: January 1965 - December 1966, London 1967
1967

E. Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, London 1967
1968

M. Stuffmann, 'Les tableaux de la collection de Pierre Crozat', Gazette des beaux-arts, LXXII, 1968, pp. 11-139
1969

R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969
1969

E. Panofsky, Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic, New York 1969
1969

F. Valcanover, L'opera completa di Tiziano, Milan 1969
1969

H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian: The Religious Paintings, 3 vols, London 1969
1973

J. Caldwell, 'An Allegory of Good Council by Titian', Commentari, XXVI, 1973, pp. 319-22
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1980

D. Arasse, 'La signification figurative chez Titien: Remarques de théorie', in Tiziano e Venezia: Convegno internazionale di studi, Venezia, 1976, Vicenza 1980, pp. 155-60
1980

L. Puppi, 'Tiziano tra Padova e Vicenza', in Tiziano e Venezia: Convegno internazionale di studi, Venezia, 1976, Vicenza 1980
1981

D. Rosand, 'Titian and the Eloquence of the Brush', Artibus et historiae, II/3, 1981, pp. 85-96
1983

J. Baltrušaitis, Aberrations: Essai sur la légende des formes, Paris 1983
1984

D. Arasse, 'Titien et son Allégorie de la Prudence: Un peintre et des motifs', in D. Rosand (ed.), Interpretazioni veneziane: Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Michelangelo Muraro, Venice 1984, pp. 291-310
1985

J. Dundas, 'A Titian Enigma', Artibus et historiae, VI/12, 1985, pp. 39-55
1986

R. Zapperi, 'Selbstbildnis und Autobiographie: Über ein Gemälde von Annibale Carracci', Idea: Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunsthalle, V, 1986, pp. 7-31
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1987

J. Rapp, 'Tizians Marsyas in Kremsier', Pantheon, XLV, 1987, pp. 70-89
1987

G. Studdert-Kennedy, 'Titian: Metaphors of Love and Renewal', Word and Image, III/1, 1987, pp. 27-40
1988

A. Bennett, A Question of Attribution, London 1988
1989

M. Tafuri, Venice and the Renaissance, Boston 1989
1990

A. Dülberg, Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert., Berlin 1990
1990

J. Fletcher, '"Fatto al specchio": Venetian Renaissance Attitudes to Self-Portraiture', Fenway Court, 1990, pp. 44-60
1990

J. Fletcher, 'Titian', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXII/1051, 1990, pp. 740-4
1990

S. Biadene and M. Yakushs, Titian: Prince of Painters (exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale (Venice), 2 June - 7 October 1990; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 28 October 1990 - 27 January 1991), Venice 1990
1990

S. Biadene, A. Paolucci and F. Valcanover, Tiziano (exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale (Venice), 2 June - 7 October 1990), Venice 1990
1991

H.C. Covey, Images of Older People in Western Art and Society, New York 1991
1991

Mottola Molfino and M. Natale (eds), Le muse e il principe: Arte di corte nel Rinascimento padano (exh. cat. Palazzo Poldo-Pezzoli, 20 September - 1 December 1991), Modena 1991
1992

H. Ost, Tizian-Studien, Cologne 1992
1993

M. Laclotte (ed.), Le siècle de Titien: L'âge d'or de la peinture à Venise (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 9 March - 14 June 1993), Paris 1993
1994

National Gallery, Ideas Personified (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 28 September - 4 December 1994), London 1994
1995

M. Natoli, Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezioni d'arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995
1995

G.J.M. Weber, 'Vom Rätsel einer Hieroglyphe zum "Guten Rat" von Pietro Liberi', Dresdener Kunstblätter, V, 1995, pp. 151-6
1997

B. Edelein-Badie, La collection de tableaux de Lucien Bonaparte, prince de Canino, Paris 1997
1997

L. Capodieci, 'Review "D. Arasse, Le sujet dans le tableau. Essais d'iconographie analytique"', Venezia cinquecento, 13, 1997
1998

M. Kaminski, Tiziano Vecellio, Known as Titian, 1488-1576, Cologne 1998
1998

S. Cohen, 'Animals in the Paintings of Titian: A Key to Hidden Meanings', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXL/132, 1998, pp. 193-212
1999

K. Lippincott, The Story of Time (exh. cat. National Maritime Museum, 1 December 1999 - 24 September 2000), London 1999
2000

K.T. Brown, The Painter's Reflection: Self-Portraiture in Renaissance Venice, 1458-1625, Florence 2000
2000

J. Cranston, The Poetics of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance, Cambridge 2000
2000

S. Cohen, 'Titian's London Allegory and the Three Beasts of His "selva oscura"', Renaissance Studies, XIV/1, 2000, pp. 46-69
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

F. Pedrocco, Titian: The Complete Paintings, London 2001
2001

G. Lovato, 'Tre Prudenze', Venezia cinquecento, XI/21, 2001, pp. 167-83
2002

M.W. Gahtan, 'Notions of Past and Future in Italian Renaissance Art and Letters', in C. Heck and K. Lippincott (eds), Symbols of Time in the History of Art, Turnhout 2002, pp. 69-83
2003

D. Jaffé (ed.), Titian, London 2003
2003

E.J. Campbell, 'Old Age and the Politics of Judgement in Titian's Allegory of Prudence', Word and Image, XIX/4, 2003, pp. 261-70
2003

C. Hope et al., Titian (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 19 February - 18 May 2003; Museo Nacional del Prado, 10 June - 7 September 2003), London 2003
2004

P. Humfrey, The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections (exh. cat. National Gallery of Scotland, 5 August - 5 December 2004), Edinburgh 2004
2006

A. Gentili, 'Ancora sull'Allegoria della Prudenza', Studi tizianeschi, IV, 2006, pp. 122-34
2006

N. Spinosa, Tiziano e il ritratto di corte da Raffaello ai Carracci (exh. cat. Museo di Capodimonte, 25 March - 4 June 2006), Naples 2006
2007

M.H. Loh, Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art, Los Angeles 2007
2007

S. Ferino Pagden, Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei (exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum, 18 October 2007 - 6 January 2008; Gallerie dell'Accademia, 1 Februrary - 21 April 2008), Vienna 2007
2008

Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008

Frame

This sixteenth-century Italian cassetta frame features intricate carved ornamentation on its wide frieze. The lower frieze is adorned by a central shield held by dragons, surrounded by undulating vine leaves and tendrils set against a punch-tooled background. These dragons also appear in the vines at the corners. The vines are bound together at the apex.

A triple bead-and-reel pattern adorns the top of the inward-step sight moulding, which includes a newly fitted sight-moulded slip within an enlarged rebate to house this painting by Titian. The original water gilding, now worn, reveals the warm orange hue of the underlying clay bole.

This frame was paired with Titian’s An Allegory of Prudence in 2015 and retains its original form.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Titian

(Showing 6 of 19 works)

Bacchus and Ariadne

Titian

One of the most famous paintings in the National Gallery, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne illustrates a story told by the classical authors Ovid and Catullus. The Cretan princess Ariadne has been abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus, whose ship sails away in the distance. Bacchus, god o...

Not on display

Diana and Actaeon

Titian

While hunting, Actaeon accidentally stumbles upon the secret bathing place of Diana, chaste goddess of the hunt, and sees her naked. His fate is foretold by the stag’s skull on the plinth and the skins of Diana’s former prey hanging above her head. The conclusion of the story is shown in another...

Not on display

Diana and Callisto

Titian

The nymph Callisto was the favourite of Diana, virgin goddess of the hunt. Jupiter, king of the gods, noticed her beauty and disguised himself to seduce her. Titian has painted the moment Diana forces Callisto to strip and bathe after hunting and discovers her pregnancy. The drama is heightened b...

Not on display

Noli me Tangere

Titian

Risen from the dead, Christ appears to his grieving follower, Mary Magdalene, in the Garden of Gethsemane. At first she mistakes him for a gardener but then reaches out her hand in wonder. Christ says, ‘Do not touch me’ (in Latin, noli me tangere); it is time for his followers to let go of his ea...

Not on display

Portrait of a Lady ('La Schiavona')

Titian

Titian painted this picture when he was in his early twenties, at a time when private portraits of individual women were still rare. We don‘t know the identity of the sitter, if indeed this is a portrait in the traditional sense, rather than a general picture of a woman designed to encourage such...

Not on display

Portrait of a Young Man

Titian

Not on display

Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo

Titian

In this, one of Titian’s earliest portraits, the sitter turns to look at us over his shoulder and momentarily meets our gaze. Our attention is focused on the raised brow above his right eye, which is positioned midway across the picture. The man’s elbow rests on a parapet and his voluminous quilt...

Not on display

Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro

Titian

Girolamo Fracastoro (1476/8–1553), a celebrated medical doctor, as well as an astronomer, mathematician and poet, proposed the theory of contagion and in 1530 wrote an epic poem that gave the name ’syphilis' to the virulent, sexually transmitted disease that was ravaging Italy in that period.Alth...

Not on display

The Aldobrandini Madonna

Titian

The Virgin and Child are accompanied by the young Saint John the Baptist and a kneeling woman, who cannot be clearly identified. She holds the infant Christ in her arms and gazes at him in adoration.It is not clear which, if any, New Testament episode is shown here. The shepherd and herdsman in t...

Not on display

The Death of Actaeon

Titian

The story of Actaeon is told in the Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. In Titian’s earlier Diana and Actaeon, painted for King Philip II of Spain in 1556–9 and now jointly owned by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland, Actaeon disturbs the goddess Diana and her nymphs at...

Not on display

The Holy Family with a Shepherd

Titian

This is one of Titian’s earliest surviving works. It shows the Adoration of the Shepherds – the flying angel in the distance announces Christ’s birth to them. Saint Joseph presents the infant Christ to a young shepherd, who kneels in reverence.It is unusual to find only one shepherd in attendance...

Not on display

The Tribute Money

Titian

The Pharisees (chief priests) ask Christ whether it is right to pay tax to the Romans, who rule Palestine. Christ, sensing a trap, asks whose likeness and name are on the coinage: ‘They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then he saith unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and...

Not on display

The Vendramin Family

Titian

This is Titian’s largest group portrait. The man in a red robe is probably Gabriel Vendramin (1484–1552). The man holding the altar may be Gabriel’s brother, Andrea Vendramin (1481–1547), and the boys are his seven sons. On the altar is a reliquary of the True Cross that their great-great-grandfa...

Not on display

The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ

Titian

The Virgin Mary gazes at the infant Christ who feeds from her breast. The naked child is encircled in his mother’s arms and twists away from us. Our eye is drawn from the Virgin’s delicate fingers, up the line of Christ’s back and to the expression of devotion on her face.Titian appears to be cit...

Not on display

A Boy with a Bird

Titian or workshop of Titian

The infant cradling a dove to his cheek closely resembles Cupid in two versions of Titian’s Venus and Adonis, dating to around 1560, in Washington and New York. Yet the way in which the picture is painted and the range of colours used are characteristic of Titian’s work of the 1520s.This apparent...

Not on display

The Music Lesson

Possibly by Titian

A boy sings from a partbook while his music master beats time with his finger and perhaps sings along. A woman leans her arm against the teacher’s shoulder, her head tilted with a faraway look as if she is listening to the music. A youth accompanies the boy on a viol da gamba, while a young man b...

Not on display

Mythological Scene

Follower of Titian

Reminiscent of Titian’s style, this painting is typical of the kind of mythological scene made for learned, private patrons in Venice that he helped pioneer. Cupid, god of love, raises his arrow to pierce a woman embracing a youth who holds a golden apple.The central couple may be Hippomenes and...

Not on display

Venus and Adonis

Workshop of Titian

Naked Venus, the goddess of love, throws her arms around handsome young Adonis to stop him from going out to hunt. The story is told in Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Venus falls in love with the youth Adonis when Cupid accidentally wounds her with one of his arrows. She goes hunting with Adoni...

Not on display

The Trinity ('La Gloria')

After Titian

This is a copy of Titian’s large canvas known as ‘La Gloria’ (The Glory) or The Trinity. Titian’s painting was commissioned by Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1551, and is now in the Prado, Madrid.The Emperor and Empress with their son Prince Philip and his sisters kneel in their burial shrouds bef...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 19 works