possibly Albert Rubens (1614-1657); bought by Captain Maurice Johnson, 1742/44 for his father, Maurice Johnson Sr., Spalding (1688-1755); by descent in Johnson and Marsden families; W.A. Marsden (book-plate, 1897); Christopher Marsden (bookplate, 1930); 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); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 17/10/2017-21/01/2018; Stadel Museum, Frankfurt, 08/02/2018-03/06/2018

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 2017-18
cat. no. 28

van der Meulen, Marjorie, Rubens copies after the Antique (CRLB), 3 vols, London 1994
vol. I, p. 73 (verso)

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, left centre edge, cut off in binding: top of a foolscap with seven points (matches Heawood 2002 - dated 1674, on a collection of Dutch paper in London).

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, grey ink, Rubens’s original foliation: “90.b.”; whole page, grey ink, with corrections and accents added in brown ink: “qúinta essentia / omne principiúm dat figúram seú formam […]” [not fully transcribed]; lower right corner, graphite, folio number: “27”. Verso: upper left corner, grey ink, Rubens’s original foliation: “90.b.”; upper half of page, grey ink: “cúbi predestinatúr únitas út in capite ibi binariús par / distinguens in latitudine ternariúm in altitúdine / parem tertiam t[o]tum p[ar]tem ternarii dintingúit, idque [n]o[n] p[er] lineam sed superficiale corpus ut nasúm in facie / ubi predestinatur binariús ibi binariús par dissecat in / latitudine / fol 91.a. / quaternitas seu dualitas / pro eodem accipiuntur”; left centre, grey ink: “distinctio per binariúm / in latitudine”; diagram labelled in grey ink: numbered “3” four times across the torso, and “2” in groin area; upper left of diagram labelled vertically “tria alia” and “distinctio per ternarium in altitudine” and horizontally “dissectio” and at right edge “trinarium in / latitudine”; at groin “dissecatio p[er] binarium in latitúdine”; left of legs, written vertically: “quatuor / bis duo” and right of legs, written horizontally: “distinctio per binariu / in altitúdine”.