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

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. 77 note 95

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

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. 142 note 117 ...More

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, brown ink, Rubens’s original foliation: “2”; whole page, brown ink: "+ / Qúare Figúrae húmanae Elementa tria / constitnantúr […]" [not fully transcribed, continued on verso] [Translation of fol. 2r, skips most of 2v and picks up towards the bottom and continued to top of fol. 3r but does not translate the final 4 lines: Why the human figure consists of three elements. Numbers are the beginning of all things and the beginning of numbers is unity, because unity is simple, and from unity nothing is made but One. Nevertheless, the composite consists of unities, however, the composite demands not a single beginning, but a multitude, and there cannot be two of these since the number two is composed of two equal and similar parts, such that two times one is two because two unities are equal: and among equals there can be no antipathy, but only sympathy, and from sympathy no generation can proceed, from which it follows that the number two cannot be the beginning of all things. Moreover, two is the symbol of opinion, the first step away from truth because the reason for opinion is duality, it is necessary that the beginning of all composite things consists of the number three. In this way, Nature itself has willed in creating that all things consist of three principles: namely salt, sulphur and mercury [here are small sketches of a square, triangle and circle]. All things are born of One, the beginning of all numbers, itself without beginning and after the image of God, uncreatable, indivisible unless found in a continuum. Because One, although exempt from multiplication and division, exists in a forest in which everything is contained: even and uneven, square and cube, and all things come from Her. It is with reason that Pythagoras calls this number the Mind and the likeness of God. [Here a large section of text on fol. 2v is untranslated] It is for this reason correct that this number is the beginning of all figures, of which the triangle is the principle: this is the triangle, from which the cube arises, and the circle from the cube with its corners removed, and from this the pyramid as well. These elements of the human figure are here constituted on the basis of us (that is, ourselves as the human figure). Pythagoras called the number three masculine and the number two feminine]; lower right corner, graphite, folio number: "2". Verso: whole page, brown ink, continued from recto: “+ / testimonio in principio primivo lúminis de Coelo […]” [not fully transcribed].