ABSTRACT
Derived from the Italian word “cartone” and the Dutch “karton,” meaning a large sheet of heavy-duty paper, the term cartooning originally described a process used by the old masters. It refers to the production of a fullsized, detailed compositional outline drawing executed on sturdy paper as a preparatory study, or “modello,” and made in preparation for its tracetransfer to a surface intended for a painting. Typically, the cartoon was transferred by rubbing the back with chalk and redrawing the outline with a stylus, thus transferring its delineation to the canvas or panel. Cartoons were also used as a guide in the production of frescoes, to quickly and accurately transfer a compositional drawing before it was painted on damp plaster. To do so, cartoons received pinpricks along the contours of the design and, while held against the wall, a bag of powdered pigment was then dabbed or “pounced” over the cartoon to stencil dots directly on to the plaster. Surviving cartoons by Renaissance painters, such as Leonardo da Vinci and the famous Raphael cartoons, are highly prized in their own right. However, the latter, intended for tapestries, were colored and used in a different way: that is, as a visual register by weavers when working at the loom.
