Also 8 carton, cartone. [a. F. carton or (its source) It. cartone, augm. of carta paper.]
1. A drawing on stout paper, made as a design for a painting of the same size to be executed in fresco or oil, or for a work in tapestry, mosaic, stained glass, or the like.
1671. Evelyn, Diary, 18 Jan. I perceived him [Gibbon], carving that large cartoon, or crucifix, of Tintoretto. Ibid. (1683), 9 May. To ask whether he [the Duke of Norfolk] would part with any of his cartoons and other drawings of Raphael.
1697. C. Hatton, Corr. (1878), II. 229. But ye sight best pleased me was ye cartoons by Raphael, wch are far beyond all ye paintings I ever saw.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 226, ¶ 1. The Cartons in Her Majesty’s Gallery at Hampton-Court.
a. 1721. Prior, Alma, III. 440. When Rarus shows you his Cartone, He always tells you, with a groan [etc.].
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 240.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna (1857), 24. The set of cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel.
1867. Standard, 14 Feb., 7/4. Charged with being in possession of 80 coloured cartoons for church windows in stained glass.
2. A full-page illustration in a paper or periodical; esp. applied to those in the comic papers relating to current events.
1863. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., xl. One of Mr. Leech’s most genial cartoons.
1879. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXIX. 8. The cartoons bearing on colonial politics.
