Around 1550, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), the master of Italian Venetian Renaissance art, created an enigmatic painting in which the faces of three men are superimposed above three animal heads. It is a work of unique composition featuring an old man and a wolf on the left, a middle-aged man and a lion in the center, and a young man and a dog on the right. There has been much debate about the meaning and purpose of this peculiar painting, which appears to have multiple heads joined to a single body. Researchers generally interpret that this work contains the artist's reflection on the passage of time, and that the three men's faces symbolize the human life cycle.
In Western culture, it is customary to read text and images from left to right. In light of this fact, the painting is analyzed as depicting three moments of life—old age, maturity, and youth—in reverse order. The old man is a figure looking back on the past; the face of the mature man gazing straight ahead signifies the active present; and the young man represents the hopeful future. The Latin inscriptions carved in black above each head suggest that this painting is an allegory about time and prudence. The Latin phrases corresponding to the three faces signify, from left to right, memory of the past, intelligence that derives lessons for present life, and wise foresight for the future. When these phrases are connected, they complete the sentence: "Learning from yesterday, acting prudently today, one does not ruin tomorrow by one's actions."
This work was painted when Titian had entered his sixties. There are interpretations that it is a painting in which the elderly artist reflects on and repents his past life, and some scholars even theorize it is his artistic testament. The old man's face, depicted darker and more roughly compared to the other two figures, can be seen as the painter's negative self-image. The wolf's head placed beneath the face of the old man—who regrets past recklessness and arrogance in the unlit darkness—symbolizes greed. In this work, Titian succeeded in creating a metaphorical and suggestive scene through techniques of dramatic chiaroscuro and visible brushstrokes. It can be called a quintessential Venetian-style painting that strengthens emotional communion with viewers through effects of light and color.