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Study of the Farnese Hercules (recto)
Maker
(artist)
1577-1640
1577-1640
Title
Study of the Farnese Hercules (recto)
Date of Production
(circa) 1601 - 1602
Medium
pen and brown ink (recto and verso) on laid paper
Dimensions
Height: 19.6 cm
Width: 15.3 cm
Width: 15.3 cm
Accession Number
D.1978.PG.427
Mode of Acquisition
Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Location
Not currently on display
Keywords
Related Works
Provenance
as leaf in Rubens’s Pocketbook: Canon Antoon Tassis (d.1651); Roger de Piles, Paris (1635-1709); Claude Bourdaloue (d.1715); André-Charles Boulle, Paris (1642-1732), where in 1720 separated from Pocketbook due to fire; as loose leaf, acquired probably in Brussels by Captain Maurice Johnson (1714-1793), 1742/44 for his father, Maurice Johnson of Spalding (1688-1755); by descent to Christopher Marsden; his sale, Sotheby’s (London), 23- 24 March 1970, lot 179; purchased there via Maggs Bros. (London) by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978) (£2,600, along with MS Johnson); Princes Gate Bequest 1978
Previously it was assumed the sketchbook had been inherited by Albert Rubens (1614-1657); Balis (in Heinen and Thielemann 2001, p. 15) points out that a letter from Jean-Michel Picart (1600-1682), the Paris art dealer, to Mattijs Musson (1598-1678), the Antwerp painter and dealer, dated 24 January 1676, re-ports that 'a very learned person and art lover' (referring to Roger de Piles), wanted to write a life of Rubens, and told him that the Pocketbook was given by Rubens to Canon Tassis.
Previously it was assumed the sketchbook had been inherited by Albert Rubens (1614-1657); Balis (in Heinen and Thielemann 2001, p. 15) points out that a letter from Jean-Michel Picart (1600-1682), the Paris art dealer, to Mattijs Musson (1598-1678), the Antwerp painter and dealer, dated 24 January 1676, re-ports that 'a very learned person and art lover' (referring to Roger de Piles), wanted to write a life of Rubens, and told him that the Pocketbook was given by Rubens to Canon Tassis.
Exhibition History
Rubens - A Master in the Making, National Gallery, London, 26/10/2005-15/01/2006
Rubens - Paintings, Drawings and Prints in the Princes Gate
Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 06/10/1988-08/01/1989
Rubens - Paintings, Drawings and Prints in the Princes Gate
Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 06/10/1988-08/01/1989
Literature
Logan, Anne-Marie in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, Anne-Marie Logan in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue, Volume Two (1609-1620), 2 vols, Turnhout, 2023
part I, p. 76 note 1 under no. 230
Rubens: Picturing Antiquity, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 10 Nov. 2021- 24 Jan. 2022
pp. 35-36
fig. 29 on p. 35 (recto)
Logan, Anne-Marie in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, Anne-Marie Logan in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue, Volume One (1590-1608), 2 vols, Turnhout, 2021
vol I, pp. 57-58, 128-130, no. 87
figs. 134, 135 ...More
Woodall, Joanna, ‘Afterward’ in Cordula van Wyhe (ed.), Rubens and the Human Body, Turnhout, 2018, pp. 341-48
pp. 346-48
fig. 3 on p. 347 (recto)
Thielemann, Andreas, ‘Stone to Flesh: Rubens’ Treatise De imitatione statuarum’ in Cordula van Wyhe (ed.), Rubens and the Human Body, Turnhout, 2018, pp. 41-101
p. 75
fig. 14 on p. 76 (recto; erroneously captioned as fol. 40r)
Segreto, Vita (ed.), Libri e Album di Disegni, 1550-1800: Nuove prospettive metodologiche e di esegesi storico-critica, Rome, 2018
p. 95
fig. 5 (recto)
in file
Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 2017-18
p. 159
fig. 2 on p. 165 (recto and verso)
in file
Lusheck, Catherine, Rubens and the Eloquence of Drawing, London, 2017
pp. xxv, xxvii, 28, 198, 205-06, 210, 214, 231 note 181
pls. 35 (recto), 36 (verso)
McGrath, Elizabeth, Gregory Martin, Fiona Healey, Bert Schepers, Carl van de Velde and Karolien de Clippel, Mythological Subjects. I. Achilles to The Graces, CRLB XI, 2 vols., London and Turnhout, 2016
I, pp. 144 note 15 and 146 note 38 under no. 7a
Göttler; Christone and Tine L. Meganck, 'Sites of art, nature and the antique in the Spanish Netherlands' in 'Embattled territory: the circulation of knowledge in the Spanish Netherlands', Ghent 2015 - pp. 333-70
p. 367
fig. 19 (verso, erroneously labelled as fol. 281 verso)
Drawn from the Antique: Artists and the Classical Ideal, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 2015, 2015
p. 47
fig. 67 on p. 46
van Beneden, Ben, 'Rubens: maverick artist. The master's theoretical notebook' in 'The Rubenianum Quarterly', 2013
p. 1
fig. 7 on p. 4
in file
L'Europe de Rubens, Musée du Louvre-Lens 2013
pp. 196, 249
fig. 41 on p. 249 (recto and verso)
Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, Frick Collection, New York and Courtauld Gallery, London London 2012-2013
p. 126
fig. 51 on p. 127 (recto)
Thielemann, Andreas 'Rubens’ Traktat de imitatione staturaum’ in Ursula Rombach and Peter Seiler (eds.), Imitatio als Transformation. Theorie und Praxis der Antikennachahmung in der Frühen Neuzeit, Petersberg, 2012, pp. 95-146
p. 119
abb. 16 is erroneously captioned as being the recto of this sheet, but it is actually folio 40 from MS Johnson
Jaffé, David and Giovanna Tonelli, Rubens’s Massacre of the Innocents. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2009
pp. 99-101
figs. 88, 86
Belkin, Kristin Lohse, Rubens: copies and adaptations from Renaissance and later artists. (1), German and Netherlandish artists (CRLB), London 2009
p. 119
Barone, Juliana, ‘Rubens and Leonardo on Motion: Figures, Inscriptions, and Texts’ in Claire Farago (ed.), Re-reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting across Europe, Farnham, 2009, pp. 441-72
p. 450
Vander Auwera, Joost, Sabine van Sprang and Inga Rossi-Schrimpf, Rubens, a genius at work: the works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium reconsidered, Tielt 2007
pp. 52, 56
fig. 2 on p. 54 (verso)
in essay by Tine Meganck, 'Rubens on the Human Figure: Theory, Practice and Metaphysics', pp. 52-64
Rubens - A Master in the Making, National Gallery, London, 2005-2006
cat. no. 27
and pp. 21-22, 25
ill. on pp. 92 (verso), 93 (recto)
A House of Art: Rubens as Collector, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2004
p. 20
fig. 11 on p. 20 (recto)
author: Muller
Balis, A., ‘Rubens und Inventio. Der Beitrag seines theoretischen Studienbuches’, in 'Rubens passioni: Kultur der Leidenschaten im Barock (Rekonstruktion der Künste, 3)', Göttingen 2001 - pp. 11-40
p. 23
pl. 5 on p. 22 (recto)
Healy, Fiona, Rubens and the Judgement of Paris: A Question of Choice, Turnhout, 1997
pp. 57-58
figs. 77-78
Pirani, Federica, ‘L’Ercole Farnese tra studio dell’antico e citazione antiquariale: alcuni esempi’, in Paolo Moreno (ed.), Lisippo: l’arte e fortuna, Milan, 1995, pp. 416-39
pp. 424-25
ill. on p. 422 (recto and verso)
van der Meulen, Marjorie, Rubens copies after the Antique (CRLB), 3 vols, London 1994
vol. I, pp. 71-72; vol. II, pp. 44 notes 1-2 under no. 18, 45-46 under no. 19
vol. III, figs 37 (recto) and 38 (verso)
Kemp, Martin, The science of art: optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat, New Haven and London 1990
p. 99
pl. 193 on p. 101 (verso)
Rubens - Paintings, Drawings and Prints in the Princes Gate Collection, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1988-1989
cat. no. 59
no. 59 and Forward and pp. 20 under no. 23, 22-23 under no. 27, 50-51, 51-52 under no. 58
ill. on p. 52 (verso)
dated c. 1602-02; in file
White, Christopher, Peter Paul Rubens: man and artist, New Haven 1987
pp. 34-35
pl. 51 on p. 36 (verso)
'Artists' professional handbooks from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries' in 'Children of Mercury: the education of artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries', Bell Gallery, Brown University, Rhode Island 1984 Brown University 1984
pp. 121, 126
fig. 97 on p. 126 (recto)
dated c. 1605; in file
Muller, Jeffrey M., 'Rubens's theory and practice of imitation' in 'Art Bulletin', June 1982; LXIV, 2
p. 236
fig. 3 on p. 237 (recto)
in file
Jaffé, Michael, Rubens and Italy, Oxford 1977
pp. 12, 80-81
pls. 281 (recto) and 283 (verso)
only pp. 80-81 in file
Peter Paul Rubens: kritischer Katalog der Zeichnungen: Originale, Umkreis, Kopien, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1977, 1977
p. 30 under no. 5
in file
Biavati, Giuliana et al. (eds.), Rubens e Genova, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 18 December 1977 - 12 February 1978
pp. 217-19 under no. 4
figs. 81, 82 (recto and verso)
author: G. Frabetti
Sotheby's, London, Catalogue of valuable printed books autograph letters and historical documents, 23-24 March 1970
verso ill.
Jaffé, Michael, Van Dyck's Antwerp Sketchbook, London 1966
vol. I, pp. 18-20, 23-24, 46
vol. I, figs. X (verso, but they call it the recto) and XII (recto, but they call it the verso)
Mariette, P.J., Abecedario, 1858-9; V
p. 68
Walpole, Horace, Anecdotes of painting in England, 1762
vol. II, pp. 86-87 ...Less
part I, p. 76 note 1 under no. 230
Rubens: Picturing Antiquity, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 10 Nov. 2021- 24 Jan. 2022
pp. 35-36
fig. 29 on p. 35 (recto)
Logan, Anne-Marie in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, Anne-Marie Logan in association with Kristin Lohse Belkin, The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue, Volume One (1590-1608), 2 vols, Turnhout, 2021
vol I, pp. 57-58, 128-130, no. 87
figs. 134, 135 ...More
Woodall, Joanna, ‘Afterward’ in Cordula van Wyhe (ed.), Rubens and the Human Body, Turnhout, 2018, pp. 341-48
pp. 346-48
fig. 3 on p. 347 (recto)
Thielemann, Andreas, ‘Stone to Flesh: Rubens’ Treatise De imitatione statuarum’ in Cordula van Wyhe (ed.), Rubens and the Human Body, Turnhout, 2018, pp. 41-101
p. 75
fig. 14 on p. 76 (recto; erroneously captioned as fol. 40r)
Segreto, Vita (ed.), Libri e Album di Disegni, 1550-1800: Nuove prospettive metodologiche e di esegesi storico-critica, Rome, 2018
p. 95
fig. 5 (recto)
in file
Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 2017-18
p. 159
fig. 2 on p. 165 (recto and verso)
in file
Lusheck, Catherine, Rubens and the Eloquence of Drawing, London, 2017
pp. xxv, xxvii, 28, 198, 205-06, 210, 214, 231 note 181
pls. 35 (recto), 36 (verso)
McGrath, Elizabeth, Gregory Martin, Fiona Healey, Bert Schepers, Carl van de Velde and Karolien de Clippel, Mythological Subjects. I. Achilles to The Graces, CRLB XI, 2 vols., London and Turnhout, 2016
I, pp. 144 note 15 and 146 note 38 under no. 7a
Göttler; Christone and Tine L. Meganck, 'Sites of art, nature and the antique in the Spanish Netherlands' in 'Embattled territory: the circulation of knowledge in the Spanish Netherlands', Ghent 2015 - pp. 333-70
p. 367
fig. 19 (verso, erroneously labelled as fol. 281 verso)
Drawn from the Antique: Artists and the Classical Ideal, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 2015, 2015
p. 47
fig. 67 on p. 46
van Beneden, Ben, 'Rubens: maverick artist. The master's theoretical notebook' in 'The Rubenianum Quarterly', 2013
p. 1
fig. 7 on p. 4
in file
L'Europe de Rubens, Musée du Louvre-Lens 2013
pp. 196, 249
fig. 41 on p. 249 (recto and verso)
Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, Frick Collection, New York and Courtauld Gallery, London London 2012-2013
p. 126
fig. 51 on p. 127 (recto)
Thielemann, Andreas 'Rubens’ Traktat de imitatione staturaum’ in Ursula Rombach and Peter Seiler (eds.), Imitatio als Transformation. Theorie und Praxis der Antikennachahmung in der Frühen Neuzeit, Petersberg, 2012, pp. 95-146
p. 119
abb. 16 is erroneously captioned as being the recto of this sheet, but it is actually folio 40 from MS Johnson
Jaffé, David and Giovanna Tonelli, Rubens’s Massacre of the Innocents. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2009
pp. 99-101
figs. 88, 86
Belkin, Kristin Lohse, Rubens: copies and adaptations from Renaissance and later artists. (1), German and Netherlandish artists (CRLB), London 2009
p. 119
Barone, Juliana, ‘Rubens and Leonardo on Motion: Figures, Inscriptions, and Texts’ in Claire Farago (ed.), Re-reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting across Europe, Farnham, 2009, pp. 441-72
p. 450
Vander Auwera, Joost, Sabine van Sprang and Inga Rossi-Schrimpf, Rubens, a genius at work: the works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium reconsidered, Tielt 2007
pp. 52, 56
fig. 2 on p. 54 (verso)
in essay by Tine Meganck, 'Rubens on the Human Figure: Theory, Practice and Metaphysics', pp. 52-64
Rubens - A Master in the Making, National Gallery, London, 2005-2006
cat. no. 27
and pp. 21-22, 25
ill. on pp. 92 (verso), 93 (recto)
A House of Art: Rubens as Collector, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2004
p. 20
fig. 11 on p. 20 (recto)
author: Muller
Balis, A., ‘Rubens und Inventio. Der Beitrag seines theoretischen Studienbuches’, in 'Rubens passioni: Kultur der Leidenschaten im Barock (Rekonstruktion der Künste, 3)', Göttingen 2001 - pp. 11-40
p. 23
pl. 5 on p. 22 (recto)
Healy, Fiona, Rubens and the Judgement of Paris: A Question of Choice, Turnhout, 1997
pp. 57-58
figs. 77-78
Pirani, Federica, ‘L’Ercole Farnese tra studio dell’antico e citazione antiquariale: alcuni esempi’, in Paolo Moreno (ed.), Lisippo: l’arte e fortuna, Milan, 1995, pp. 416-39
pp. 424-25
ill. on p. 422 (recto and verso)
van der Meulen, Marjorie, Rubens copies after the Antique (CRLB), 3 vols, London 1994
vol. I, pp. 71-72; vol. II, pp. 44 notes 1-2 under no. 18, 45-46 under no. 19
vol. III, figs 37 (recto) and 38 (verso)
Kemp, Martin, The science of art: optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat, New Haven and London 1990
p. 99
pl. 193 on p. 101 (verso)
Rubens - Paintings, Drawings and Prints in the Princes Gate Collection, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1988-1989
cat. no. 59
no. 59 and Forward and pp. 20 under no. 23, 22-23 under no. 27, 50-51, 51-52 under no. 58
ill. on p. 52 (verso)
dated c. 1602-02; in file
White, Christopher, Peter Paul Rubens: man and artist, New Haven 1987
pp. 34-35
pl. 51 on p. 36 (verso)
'Artists' professional handbooks from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries' in 'Children of Mercury: the education of artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries', Bell Gallery, Brown University, Rhode Island 1984 Brown University 1984
pp. 121, 126
fig. 97 on p. 126 (recto)
dated c. 1605; in file
Muller, Jeffrey M., 'Rubens's theory and practice of imitation' in 'Art Bulletin', June 1982; LXIV, 2
p. 236
fig. 3 on p. 237 (recto)
in file
Jaffé, Michael, Rubens and Italy, Oxford 1977
pp. 12, 80-81
pls. 281 (recto) and 283 (verso)
only pp. 80-81 in file
Peter Paul Rubens: kritischer Katalog der Zeichnungen: Originale, Umkreis, Kopien, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1977, 1977
p. 30 under no. 5
in file
Biavati, Giuliana et al. (eds.), Rubens e Genova, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 18 December 1977 - 12 February 1978
pp. 217-19 under no. 4
figs. 81, 82 (recto and verso)
author: G. Frabetti
Sotheby's, London, Catalogue of valuable printed books autograph letters and historical documents, 23-24 March 1970
verso ill.
Jaffé, Michael, Van Dyck's Antwerp Sketchbook, London 1966
vol. I, pp. 18-20, 23-24, 46
vol. I, figs. X (verso, but they call it the recto) and XII (recto, but they call it the verso)
Mariette, P.J., Abecedario, 1858-9; V
p. 68
Walpole, Horace, Anecdotes of painting in England, 1762
vol. II, pp. 86-87 ...Less
Inscriptions
Watermark: Watermark: none.
Inscription: Recto: upper portion of sheet, brown ink, artist’s hand, transcribed and translated by John Newman for Braham 1988: “Vir / HPAK?EZ [the Greek miswritten by Rubens - the 5th letter should be lambda, not delta] / Forma Herculea siue robusti viri supra modum / Ex cubo Fundamentum habet (Ut Columnae Tuscum genus / quod Atletis assimilator) Tum Ex Circúlo perfecto / et Equalaterali nascitur Triangulo, / Ex Cubo sive quadrato perfecto & Latitudo pectoris / dorsi scapulorum etcet Et Crassitudo pectoris / et dorsi et lumborum / Item natis alte Succinctae / Item in capite Tempora / valde plena Musculi / oculis imminentes magni et / Carnosi supra modum ad quadratum / frontis pertinente ad quadraturam / vero integ[ram] capilli Anguli barba ad maxillarum / latera capillatis Temporibus correspondentes / Probatio Cubi ex Herculis Farnesii facie seu capite / ex Antiquo” [A man Heracles The Form of Hercules or of an extremely robust man has its basis in a cube (as the Tuscan kind of column which is compare to athletes). Then it is produced by a perfect circle and an equilateral triangle. From a cube or a perfect square (comes) the breadth of the chest, back and shoulder-blades, etc., and the depth of chest and back and loins, and again of the buttocks deeply undergirded. And again in the head the very full temples, the great and exceedingly fleshy muscles overhanging the eyes relate to the square of the forehead; to a perfect square indeed (relate) the hairs of the angle of the jawbones corresponding to the hairy temples. The proof of the cube is from the face of the Farnese Hercules or from an antique head]. Verso: upper left corner, brown ink, artist’s hand: “Ex correspondentia / pectoris et dorsi / et scapularum cum / Mammis Nascatur / Crassitudo cubi” [From a correspondence of the chest and the back and the shoulder blades with the nipples let the thickness of the cube be produced].
Inscription: Recto: upper portion of sheet, brown ink, artist’s hand, transcribed and translated by John Newman for Braham 1988: “Vir / HPAK?EZ [the Greek miswritten by Rubens - the 5th letter should be lambda, not delta] / Forma Herculea siue robusti viri supra modum / Ex cubo Fundamentum habet (Ut Columnae Tuscum genus / quod Atletis assimilator) Tum Ex Circúlo perfecto / et Equalaterali nascitur Triangulo, / Ex Cubo sive quadrato perfecto & Latitudo pectoris / dorsi scapulorum etcet Et Crassitudo pectoris / et dorsi et lumborum / Item natis alte Succinctae / Item in capite Tempora / valde plena Musculi / oculis imminentes magni et / Carnosi supra modum ad quadratum / frontis pertinente ad quadraturam / vero integ[ram] capilli Anguli barba ad maxillarum / latera capillatis Temporibus correspondentes / Probatio Cubi ex Herculis Farnesii facie seu capite / ex Antiquo” [A man Heracles The Form of Hercules or of an extremely robust man has its basis in a cube (as the Tuscan kind of column which is compare to athletes). Then it is produced by a perfect circle and an equilateral triangle. From a cube or a perfect square (comes) the breadth of the chest, back and shoulder-blades, etc., and the depth of chest and back and loins, and again of the buttocks deeply undergirded. And again in the head the very full temples, the great and exceedingly fleshy muscles overhanging the eyes relate to the square of the forehead; to a perfect square indeed (relate) the hairs of the angle of the jawbones corresponding to the hairy temples. The proof of the cube is from the face of the Farnese Hercules or from an antique head]. Verso: upper left corner, brown ink, artist’s hand: “Ex correspondentia / pectoris et dorsi / et scapularum cum / Mammis Nascatur / Crassitudo cubi” [From a correspondence of the chest and the back and the shoulder blades with the nipples let the thickness of the cube be produced].
Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.
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