Prudence (Pollaiuolo)

Prudence is a 1470 oil on panel painting by Piero del Pollaiuolo, now in the Uffizi in Florence.

[1] Florence's Tribunale della Mercanzia (the body overseeing all the city's guilds) commissioned the artist to paint seven works portraying the cardinal virtues in a contract dated 18 August 1469.

They were intended to decorated the seat-backs in its audience hall on piazza della Signoria.

Billi, Albertini and Cruttwell argue from documents that the whole cycle was by Piero, whereas Ullman and others attribute all six works to Antonio based on stylistic comparisons with the few signed works by Antonio, including prints.

[2] After the magistracy moved into the Uffizi, the paintings were exhibited in the gallery from 1717 onwards after the Tribunale was suppressed.