Italian cartone, pasteboard) in Painting, is a design drawn on thick paper, or other material, which is used as a model for a large picture in fresco, oil, or tapestry. It was also formerly employed in glass and mosaic work. Cartoons are employed in fresco-painting in the following manner: the back of the design is covered with black-lead or other colouring matter; and this side of the picture being applied to the wall, the artist passes over the lines of the design with a point, and thus obtains an impression. The following method has also been practised. The outlines of the figures are pricked with a needle, and the cartoon being placed against the wall, a bag of black colouring matter is drawn over the perforations, and the outlines are thus transferred to the wall. In fresco-painting, the figures were formerly cut out and fixed upon the moist plaster. Their contour was then traced with a pointed instrument, and the outlines appeared upon the plaster after the cartoon was withdrawn. In the manufacture of tapestries upon which it is wished to give a representation of the figures of cartoons, these figures are sometimes cut out, and laid behind or under the wool, to guide the operations of the artist. In this case the cartoons are coloured.

Cartoons have been executed by some of the most distinguished masters; but the greatest performances in this line of art are those of Raphael. They are seven in number, and at present adorn the palace of Hampton Court. With respect to their merits, they were allowed by Barry to be the best of Raphael's productions; and Lanzi pronounces them to be in beauty superior to anything the world has ever seen. Not that they are all endowed with features of perfect loveliness, and limbs of faultless symmetry; but in harmony of design, in the universal adaptation of means to one great end, and in the grasp of soul which they display, they stand unrivalled. The history of these extraordinary works is curious. In Catholic countries, particularly in Italy and Spain, the balconies are generally hung with ornamental tapestries upon festival days, when processions pass through the streets. This custom, which is still preserved, is of very old date. Leo X., that distinguished patron of the arts, employed Raphael in designing a series of Scriptural subjects, which were first to be finished in cartoons, and then to be imitated in tapestry by Flemish artists, and used for the purpose above mentioned. Two principal sets were accordingly executed at Arras in Flanders, but it is supposed that neither Leo nor Raphael lived to see them. The set which went to Rome was twice carried away by invaders, first in 1526, and afterwards in 1798. In the first instance they were restored in a perfect state; but after their return in 1814, one was wanting—the culpability of a Jew having induced him to destroy it for the sake of the precious metal which it contained. Authorities differ as to their original number, but there appears to have been twenty-five of them. The cartoons after which the tapestries were woven were not, it would seem, restored to Rome, but remained as lumber about the manufactory till after the revolution of the Low Countries, when seven of them which had escaped destruction were purchased by Charles I., on the recommendation of Rubens. They were found much injured, "holes being pricked in them for the weavers to pounce the outlines, and in other parts they were almost cut through by tracing." It has never been ascertained what became of the other cartoons. Of the seven which remain, various copies have been painted. Among the best are those by Sir James Thornhill in the Royal Academy. They have also been engraved.