Template:POTD/2019-05-28
The Allegory of Prudence is an oil-on-canvas painting attributed to the Italian painter Titian and his assistants, dated around 1565 to 1570. It depicts three human heads, representing youth, maturity, and old age, above three animal heads. Both sets of heads face in different directions, which reflects the concepts of past, present and future. Scholars believe that the first of the three human heads is an elderly Titian, while the other two are his son Orazio Vecellio and his young nephew Marco Vecellio, both of whom lived and worked with him. A barely visible inscription across the top of the painting, from which the work acquired its present name, reads Ex praeterito praesens prudenter agit, ni futura actione deturpet (Latin for 'From the experience of the past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoil future actions'). The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.Painting credit: Titian