To illustrate the stages of life, the image of a sphinx is a natural choice. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx confronted wayfarers with the following riddle: "What creature goes on four feet in the morning, on two at noon and on three in the evening?" Oedipus escaped death by giving the correct answer: Man,” he said, “because he crawls in infancy, stands on two feet in adulthood and leans on a staff in old age.” The correlation of the three stages of life — youth, adulthood and old age — thus also relates by analogy to morning, noon and evening.

Titian is considered the greatest Venetian painter of the Renaissance, and his work would influence painters until the end of the 19th century. In his An Allegory of Prudence, Titian adds a broader symbolic message which transcends the mere representation of the three stages of life.

Facing left in the painting is an old man above a wolf; facing towards the viewer is an adult man above a lion; and facing to the right is a younger man above a dog. As in most chronological charts, the left-handed side symbolizes the past and the right signifies the future. The greater past of the old man explains his look toward the left, while the greater future of the young man explains his gaze to the right. The center man does not look to the left or to the right indicating that his past is of the same importance as his future, and thus symbolizing the present.

The hybrid combination wolf-lion-dog originated in Egypt where a statue depicts such a three-headed monster as a symbol of the three aspects of time. The wolf devours the past, the lion shows courage in the present and the dog sniffs out the future. A prudent man is one who does not act impulsively as he integrates the memory of the past with the intelligence of the present and the foresight of the future. This explains why the tricephalous beast also symbolizes the virtue of prudence.

Interestingly, the old man's head is Titian's self-portrait, the middle-aged man his son and the young man his young cousin and heir. In this painting, beyond the message of the three stages of life — youth, adulthood and old age — Titian's global message is about prudence and wisdom.

As a Symbolist, Titian offered a message beyond the image, and, to be sure that everyone would understand it, he inscribed on the top of the painting its meaning in Latin. The inscription is intentionally diffused within the background and arranged in three sections, corresponding to the heads underneath. The London National Gallery translated the inscription. It reads: “EX PRAETERITO PRAESENS PRVDENTER AGIT NI FUTUR - ACTIONE DETVRPET" or "FROM THE PAST THE MAN OF THE PRESENT ACTS PRUDENTLY SO AS NOT TO IMPERIL THE FUTURE.”