Cartoon, in painting, a design drawn drawn on strong paper, to be afterwards calked through, and transferred on the fresh platter of a wall to be painted in fresco. It is also used for a design coloured, for working in mosaic, tapestry, &c. The word is from the Italian Cartoni, (carta "paper," and oni "large") denoting many sheets of paper pasted on canvas, on which large designs are made, whether coloured or with chalks only. Of these many are to be seen at Rome, particularly by Domenichino. Those by Andrea Mantegna, which are at Hampton Court, were made for paintings in the old ducal palace at Mantua. But the most famous performances of this sort are,

The Cartoons of Raphael, so deservedly applauded throughout Europe by all authors of refined taste, and all true admirers of the art of design, for their various and matchless merit, particularly with regard to the invention, and to the great and noble expression of such a variety of characters, countenances, and most expressive attitudes, as they are differently affected and properly engaged, in every composition. These cartoons are seven in number, and form only a small part of the sacred historical designs executed by this great artist, while engaged in the chambers of the Vatican under the auspices of Popes Julius II. and Leo X. When finished, they were sent to Flanders, to be copied in tapestry, for adorning the pontifical apartments; which tapestries were not sent to Rome till several years after the decease of Raphael, and even in all probability were not finished and sent there before the terrible lack of that city in the time of Clement VII., when Raphael's scholars were fled from thence, and none left to enquire after the original Cartoons, which lay neglected in the store-rooms of the manufactory. The great revolution also which followed in the Low Countries prevented their being noticed amidst the entire neglect of the works of art. It was therefore a most fortunate circumstance that these seven escaped the wreck of the others, which were torn in pieces, and remain dispersed as fragments in different collections. These seven were purchased by Rubens for Charles I., and they have been for roughly handled from the first, that holes were pricked for the weavers to pounce the outlines, and other parts almost cut through in tracing also. In this state perhaps they as fortunately escaped the fate amongst the royal collection, by the disproportioned appraisement of these seven at 300l. and the nine pieces, being the Triumph of Julius Caesar, by Andrea Mantegna, appraised at 1000l. They seem to have been taken small notice of till King William built a gallery, purposely to receive them, at Hampton Court; whence they were moved, on their suffering from damp, to the Queen's Palace. They are now at Windsor Castle, and open to public inspection.