After Titian

This painting was inspired by Allegory of Prudence by the Venetian artist Titian (about 1485-1576). The male heads represent the three stages of life: youth, maturity, and old age, and the three-headed beast of wolf, lion, and dog symbolizes prudence. The figures in Titian’s painting appear to show the artist as a bearded elder, his son as a dark-haired middle-aged man, and his cousin and heir as a proud youth. Shahn was in his sixties when he created this image, and he may have thought of himself as the old figure looking to the left, reflecting on the different periods of his own life. The middle-aged face looking out at the viewer perhaps represents a moment in his past when he was mature enough to know about the ways of the world, but still young enough to show optimism for the opportunities ahead.