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

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 114
pl. 16 (erroneously captioned as D.1978.PG.427)

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. 6 on p. 22 ...More

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, left centre edge, fragment: lower half of Arms of Amsterdam.

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, graphite, Rubens’s original foliation: “180.”; upper portion of sheet, brown ink, artist’s hand, transcribed and translated from D.1978.PG.427 by John Newman for Braham 1988: “Vir / HPAK?EZ [the Greek miswritten by Rubens - the 5th letter should be lamda, not delta] / Forma Herculea sive robusti viri supra modum Ex cúbo / Fundamentúm habet (út columnae Tuscum genús quod / Atletis assimilator) Tum ex Circulo perfecto et Equalaterali / nascitur triangulo, / Ex Cubo sive quadrato perfecto Latitúdo pectoris dorsi / scapulorum etc. Et Crassitudo pectoris et dorsi et lumbo= / rum, item natis alte Succinctae / Item in capite Tempora valde / plena, Múscúli oculis immi= / nentes magni et Carnosi supra / modum ad qúadratúram / frontis [here the word “vero” crossed out, likely an eyeskip] pertinent / vero integricapitis [sic for integram capilli] / latera capitalis [sic for “capillatis”]”; the copyist evidently accidently skipped some words/lines, and these are added at lower right, with lines drawn to the places in the main passage where they should have been inserted based on the original text: “ad quadraturam / anguli barbe + / + ad maxillarúm / Temporibus correspondentes”; the text continues at lower centre: “Probatio cubi ex herculis Farnesÿ facie seú 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]; lower right, graphite: “vid. 8”; lower right corner, graphite, folio number: “40”.