L’Allegoria della prudenza di tiziano e ilsignum tricipitis del cerbero di serapide

摘要

The article focuses on the iconography of the so-calledAllegory of Prudence by Titian (London, National Gallery), in which the three animal heads have recently been interpreted as an allegory of sins. Against this view the author seeks to reconfirm the interpretation first put forward by Erwin Panofsky on the basis of a passage of Macrobius, according to which the three heads would represent the triad of Past, Present, and Future. The argument is supported by new visual and textual examples, including, as Titian’s likely direct source, a passage ofL’idea del theatro (1550) by Giulio Camillo, probably an acquaintance of Titian’s.