Prudenza

This is one of seven panels of the Virtues commissioned in 1469 by Florence's merchant tribunal, the body that oversaw the city's guilds, to line the seat-backs of its audience hall. Pollaiuolo was slow, and the impatient tribunal briefly handed one panel to a young Botticelli, who painted Fortitude before Pollaiuolo and his goldsmith brother protested loudly and won the rest of the job back. Prudence sits holding a mirror, an aid to self-knowledge, and a serpent, from the Gospel line about being as wise as snakes. Some scholars think the brother, Antonio, lent a hand here to speed things along. The whole set was meant to be seen up close by the merchants and magistrates who sat beneath them, judging the disputes of Florentine trade.