[those paintings that are] done entirely by my hand......[those,]done by the hand of a master skillfull in that department......but this one not being finished, would be entirely retouched by my own hand, and by this means would pass as original; done by one of my pupils, but the whole retouched by my hand.

In a letter of 28 April, 1618, to the collector Sir Dudley Carleton; transl. from Italian, R. Saunders Magurn, The letters of Peter Paul Rubens, Cambridge Mass., 1955, p.60-61 - Quotes of Rubens, 1605 - 1625