Dear colleagues

With my best wishes and humble support for all you do and are in this new year. I trust this Christmas was meaningful for you, and whether you celebrated or had sadness heightened through personal circumstances, that you were able to have some rest and recuperation.

Often at this time of year teachers refer to the Roman god Janus (hence January) mainly because he is depicted with his head looking to the left and right simultaneously – forwards and backwards at this pivotal point. As a child I learned about him as the Roman god of time and transitions. As a teenager, I was introduced to the Venetian artist Tiziano Vecellio, Latinized as Titianus, hence who we know as Titian, the hugely influential Renaissance Italian painter. I was shown his painting (above and below) ‘The Allegory of Prudence’ during a talk about New Year and the relevance of the painting for Christians.

This painting has been much-debated and much-interpreted by thousands of historians, artists, academics and the public, over the past five hundred years. Multiple interpretations and meanings have been and continue to be applied and explained – such is the joy of art appreciation.

I wonder when you last used the word Prudence – or indeed heard or read it?! It’s one of those words that was common parlance for centuries, but has somewhat lost its usage, particularly so in the past ten years? Prudence isn’t necessarily valued currently, when off-the-cuff, blanket statements and generalisations about people are more commonplace in the public domain from many high profile, disproportionately vocal politicians and Influencers?

One of the ways of understanding the painting is to consider the Latin words painted above the heads that translates ‘From the experience of the past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoils future actions’. In the painting, the male heads, at different stages of life are paired above the heads of a wolf, a lion and a dog - considered to be allegories of the past, present, and future.

Titian’s paintings generally contain multiple references to, and are often based on Christian teaching and thinking. I think that’s why this painting superseded my default Janus reflection as a teenager about New Year and all it means. Rather than share my raw teenage thinking, and how it fed my current understanding of the painting, in this reflection I pass over the opportunity to you – to look, think, align the painting with what Christians believe – and join the thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, even millions, of ‘views’ (literal and figurative) of this painting over the centuries. These views continue, daily, in London at The National Portrait Gallery.

So, I invite you now to pause, look, think, reflect – and perhaps at some point today or this week even discuss the painting with someone.....