Prudentia, De Voorzichtigheid. NL-HlmNHA 1477 53008504

The figure of Prudence is shown with two faces, looking simultaneously toward the past and the future. She holds a coiled serpent in her right hand as an emblem of wisdom while standing before a detailed vista of mountains and a harbor. The print utilizes the swelling and tapering lines characteristic of the engraver's virtuoso style to define the heavy, classicizing drapery of her robes.

This iconography draws on the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic concept of Prudence as the 'auriga virtutum' (charioteer of virtues), requiring the soul to balance memory of the past with foresight of the future. The serpent refers to the biblical injunction in Matthew 10:16 to be 'wise as serpents,' a common trope in Renaissance moral philosophy regarding the cultivation of the intellect.