In 1635 the Antwerp city council entrusted Rubens with the planning of festive decorations for the city to welcome the new regent of the Southern Netherlands - Cardinal Infante Ferdinand, brother of King Philip IV of Spain. Today we can only judge from engravings and the artist's own sketches (most of which are in the Hermitage) what that decoration was like. The Arch of Hercules is a sketch for the front face of an arch that completed the architectural ensemble by the entrance to the Abbey of St Michael, the regent's residence. Depicted above the span of the arch is a scene of Hercules at the Crossroads between Virtue and Vice featuring Venus with Bacchus and Cupid with Minerva calling the hero to the Temple of Glory. In the decoration of the arch Rubens depicted Ferdinand for the only time in the guise of an ancient hero. The philosophical allegory of the choice of one's course in life, extensively used in Western European art, was a favourite motif of courtly speeches that mixed praise with counsel, especially those addressed to young princes just embarking on life.The sketch comes from the Walpole collection at Houghton Hall, England, acquired by Catherine II in 1779.