Cartoons have been executed by some of the most distinguished masters; the greatest extant performances in this line of art are those of Raphael. They are seven in number, coloured in distemper; and at present they adorn the South Kensington Museum in London, having beén removed thereto from their proper home, the palace of Hampton Court. With respect to their merits, they count among the best of Raphael’s productions, Lanzi even pronounces them to be in beauty superior to anything else the world has ever seen. Not that they all present features of perfect loveliness, and limbs of faultless symmetry,—this is far from being the case j 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 among the foremost works of the designing art. The history of these cartoons is curious. Leo X. employed Raphael in designing (in 1515-16) 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 decoration of the Sixtine Chapel. Two principal sets of tapestries 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 1527, 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 cupidity of a Genoese Jew having induced him to destroy it for the sake of the precious metal which it contained. Authorities differ as to the original number of cartoons, but there appear to have been twenty-five,— some by Raphael himself, assisted by Francesco Penni, others by the surviving pupils of Raphael. The cartoons after which the tapestries were woven were not, it would seem, restored to Rome, but remained as lumber about the manufactory in Arras till after the revolution of the Low Countries, when seven of them which had escaped destruction uere 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. Three tapestries, the cartoons of which by Raphael no longer exist, are in the Vatican,—representing the Stoning of St Stephen, the Conversion of St Paul, and St Paul in prison at Philippi.

Besides the cartoons of Raphael, two, to which an extraordinary celebrity in art-history attaches, were those executed in competition by Leonardo da Vinci and by Michelangelo,—the former named the Battle of the Standard, and the latter the Cartoon of Fisa—Soldiers bathing, surprised by the approach of the enemy. Both these great works have perished, but the general design of them has been preserved. In recent times some of the most eminent designers of cartoons have been masters of the German School,—Cornelius, Kaulbach, Steinle, Fuhrich, <fcc.; indeed, as a general rule, these artists appear to greater advantage in their cartoons than in the completed paintings of the same compositions. In England cartoon-work took some considerable development in 1843 and 1844, when a competition was going on for the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. Dyce and Maclise have left examples of uncommon mark in this line. (w. Μ. R.)