ABSTRACT

By the 1720s, the Raphael Cartoons had become almost iconic images to the English, considered close to perfect works by a near perfect artist. 1 The seven paintings had enjoyed a very high reputation throughout Europe since Raphael (1483–1520) had painted them and they were known both in the form of tapestries and by the famous engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480–c.1534), among others. 2 However, it was not until the very end of the seventeenth century that their status as works of art became a matter of national pride in England and this happened despite the fact that the Cartoons were conceived of, and recognized as, works of Catholic apologetics. In this chapter we will explore how this was achieved. In addition to discovering how these specific works were approached, we will be able to see how alien subject matter was managed in practice by spectators of Catholic pictures, particularly in relation to questions of national identity. John Shearman was, I believe, the first to note the status of the Cartoons in English culture, happily describing Raphael as having being made an ‘honorary Englishman’ during this period. 3 It is the ‘Englishing’ of Raphael that this chapter discusses.