The Cartoons of Raphael

The seven cartoons of Raphael, now in the Raphael Room of the South Kensington Museum, London, are regarded as the grandest productions of Christian art. They were executed by Raphael at the command of Leo X., in 1514, and were paper patterns for the tapestries intended to adorn the lower part of the walls of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican (the roof and east end had already been painted by Michael Angelo). The cartoons are about twelve feet in height and from fourteen to eighteen feet in length. They were drawn on cardboard (carton) in chalk, tinted in distemper. The weavers cut them into strips for convenience, and threw them away when the tapestries were completed. They were picked up, however, and stored away in boxes; but of the original ten, Nos. 1, 8, and 10 are lost. Through the influence of Rubens, Charles I. of England purchased the remaining seven and had them taken to London. After the Restoration, they were sold by Charles II. to the French ambassador; but Lord Danby interfered and prevented their being removed from England. It was not until the time of William III. that the strips were put together and pasted upon canvas. They were then placed in Hampton Court, but have recently been taken to South Kensington. Three sets of tapestries were made from Raphael's cartoons-those at Rome, Berlin and Dresden.

The Rome Tapestries were executed at Arras, Flanders, in silk, wool and gold, each piece costing $3500. They are now in the Vatican, in a gallery devoted exclusively to them. The Berlin Tapestries were also executed at Arras, for Henry VIII., of England. Afterwards they became the property, in turn, of Emperor Charles V., the Dukes of Alva, and finally, in 1844, of Frederick William IV., of Prussia. The Dresden Tapestries were lost for a time and found again. In 1728 General Field-Marshal Fleming purchased them for $9000. The subjects of the cartoons are: Christ's Charge to Peter; The Death of Ananias; Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate; Healing the Lame Man; Paul and Barnabas at Lystra; Elymas the Sorcerer Struck Blind; Paul Preaching at Athens; The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. Goethe says that these tapestries are the only works of Raphael that do not look small after one has seen the frescoes of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel. "They were intended to set forth the activity of the Church-whose history was recorded on the ceiling by Angelo, and on the upper part of the side walls by the earlier Florentine artists-in teaching mankind, and guiding, in blessing and healing. Raphael designed to recite on one side the history of St. Paul, and on the other side that of St. Peter; and these histories were to fill up the compartments of the wall, five on each side, from the entrance to the altar."-Burckhardt.