Prudence is one of the cardinal virtues that governs one’s ability to make the right choices in order to achieve worthy ends. It is a virtue that enables one to deliberate properly, in order to choose the virtuous course and the right means of action in any circumstances or situation. Without prudence, bravery becomes foolhardiness; mercy sinks into weakness, free self-expression and kindness into censure, humility into degradation and arrogance, selflessness into corruption, and temperance into fanaticism.

In the artwork, the viewer is being analyzed and looked over by a woman, whose face is partially concealed with a mirror. In Greek mythology, mirrors are a symbol of wisdom and self-knowledge which makes the viewer believe that the woman with the mirror possesses great wisdom and knows exactly who she is. With her arched eyebrows and inquisitive eye, she looks at us and wonders: do we know who we are, and can we make the right choices for ourselves?