V & A (n.d) The Raphael
Cartoons: What is a Cartoon? Retrieved from
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/raphael-cartoons-what-is-a-cartoon/
I want to step back in my
research
and just go over a little bit about what the cartoons were and how
Raphael
created them. In Renaissance art, a cartoon is basically a mock up or
pre-design for a concept for a finished piece of artwork. Examples
include the
drawing of Leonardo’s Burlington cartoon that we learned about in the
first
quarter of our studies on Renaissance art. In Leonardo’s case the
Burlington
cartoon would have been used as a preliminary design for a painting. In
Raphael’s
case, he used these cartoons to create tapestries. The word cartoon is
from the
Latin word cartone. A cartone in Latin is a large piece of paper. If we
step back
a little farther in the process Raphael and his assistants would create
small
sketches called modelli, which were the basis of what was to later be
drawn to
create the cartoon. Each of the cartoon was pieced together with small
pieces
of paper. These small sheets were stuck together with a mixture of water
and
flower to act as an adhesive to hold them in place. The designs were
painted
with mixtures of animal glue, water, and different pigments. This
mixture is
laid on and worked to Raphael’s satisfaction. Once dried they were sent
to be
made into tapestries by weavers. The weavers would cut the material and
begin
weaving and sewing them together.
The cartoons were reconstructed
during the 1690s. They were glued to canvas to strengthen them because with age
they were becoming very fragile. The overlaps and connections within the tapestries
were not put together evenly at times, this is shown in the picture below in an
x-ray of Raphael’s tapestry, The Healing of the Lame Man.
Raphael’s cartoon tapestries were
so beautiful with eh amount of detail and with his subtle use of colour pallet.
For this reason it is thought that Raphael wasn’t creating these cartoons as a
pre-design or concept for a final piece. Raphael may have intended the
tapestries to be a finished work of art and not just a cartoon or preparatory
design.
The bit about these cartoons possibly being meant as final pieces is very interesting. It's incredible how much is lost about intended viewing experiences throughout the years. This argument brings me back to Leonardo's journals which seemed to be, at one point, meant for his eyes only. Now they are scattered across museums and textbooks alike. It would be fascinating to be able to know, for sure, what the intention of the artist was when creating these cartoons.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy learning about the process up to the final piece. we are constantly looking at the final works of many preceding artists but speculate how they approached a project. The cartoons remind me of Michelangelo's unfinished statues where the scoring is still apparent. I find that a bit more interesting then the final work. With the cartoons its awesome to see artistic choices made to render the final work.
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