CARTOON' (Fr. carton, from Lat. earls, paper). A design on strong paper, of the full size of a work to be afterwards executed in fresco, oil. tapestry. ie. Or stained gia,r, The object of the artist in preparing a cartoon is to adjust the drawing and coin poition of his subject in eireumstances in which alterations eau he I' with favility, before proceeding to the execution of the work it set f. Cartoons are gener ally composed of a number of sheets of stout paper pasted together at the edges. and stretched on a framc. The cartoon, when finished, is trans let redt I 0 the canvas or plaster on which the work is to be executed. either by tracing with a. hard point. or by pricking with pin. (a process called 'pouncing'). charcoal in both cases being rubbed On the back of t he drawing. In fresco painting. the plaster on which the work is exe •uted must he kept wet, in order that it may absorb the color, and con-equently only a -mall portion can he executed at a thee. For this rea son, the cartoon must be traced in small eompart merits of the size that the artist van finish without stopping. it i- here, consequently. above all, that the necessity for the previous execution of a car toon is greatest. as it be impossible to •ketch the whole design on the plaster in the first instance. In weaving superior tape-tries, like the gobelins, it is the present practice to cut out all the figures represented, which are always in color, and place them behind or under the wool. The great masters of the Renaissance used such studies in chiaroscuro as guides to them in almost all their decorative works, and many of these monuments of their care, as well as of their genius, have been preserved. They are quite as interesting, and often rise to the dignity of the fresco and oil work. The most ing examples of the fifteenth century are Andrea Mantegna's nine cartoons of the "Triumph of Julius Ccesar," long used as hangings in the ducal palace at 3Iantua, but now at Hampton Court. They are probably the artist's greatest achievement, and represent more adequately the •ntique feeling of the Renaissance than any work of the century. Epoch-making in Italian paint ing were the cartoons of incidents from the war with Pisa, painted in rivalry for frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. In neither ease was the fresco
•anpleted. and the cartoons have been destroyed: but so great was their influence upon the younger artists. especially in the case of Michelangelo's, that they may be said to have revolutionized Florentine painting. The central feature of Michelangelo's cartoon was a group of bathing :oldiers surprised by the enemy, of Leonardo's a fierce battle over a standard. Less important in the history of painting. but equally well known oy reason of their survival, are the cartoon; which Raphael designed. at the command of Leo X., for the twelve tapestries of the Sistine Chapel. Of the originals. depicting scenes from the lives of Christ and the apostles. seven survive in the youth Alu Sell ; t hey were purchased by Ruben: for Charles 1., saved by Cromwell. who commanded that they should he purchased for the nation. and preserved from neglect by Among the hest subjects are "Paul Preaehing at Athens." "Christ Delivering the keys to Peter," and "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes." In conception and design they to the very best work Raphael ever created. Of the tapestries woven in blander, after these de signs. one set is in the Vatiean. and part of an other in the Berlin Museum. Others of Raphael's cartoons. for the most part in repainted (-midi lion, survive: of especial inte•e4 is the beautiful •esign for the "School of Athens" in the Ambro siana, 31ilan. There are four gond examples by Giulio Romano in the Louvre, and cartoons by Italian painters of the seventeenth century, nota bly the Carraeei and Domeniehinos also survive. Owing to the disuse of fresco-painting at the present day., cartoons are but ,•lilorn produced.
...1t the beginning of the nineteenth century. how ever. the school of Munich, founded by Peter von Cornelius. was 11 school of cartoonists. Its leaders almost continol themselves (o this work, leaving the execution of the frescoes to their pupils, much to the detriment of the color. Besides Cornelius, whose best cartoons, notably. the "Apocalyptic Riders." hang in the Berlin Museum, the greatest cartoon-painter Of the school was Kaulbach. Consult especially the biographies of the artists mentioned above. The name 'cartoon' is also applied to full-page sketches in journals and other publications, mostly of a comic nature. See the article CAnt CATURE.