CARTOON. — Painters call a *cartone* the preparatory drawing made in the same dimensions as the final painting. Extremely useful in any technique, it is indispensable in fresco.
The artist prepares the *cartone* even for techniques in which the execution of the work is entrusted to craftsmen, for example, musicians and tapestry weavers (famous are the *cartoni* by Raphael, preserved in London, for the Vatican tapestries). Also well-known are the *cartoni* executed for the decoration of the Sala del Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence by Leonardo (*Battle of Anghiari*) and by Michelangelo (*War of Pisa*, of which, however, only drawings and engravings survive).
BIBL.: F. Baldinucci, *Vocabolario toscano dell’arte del disegno*, Florence 1681, p. 30; Both. de Tanza, *Dessins, cartons, pastels et miniatures du musée national du Louvre*, Paris 1879; O. H. Giglioli, s. V. ENOCH. Ital., IX, pp. 232–33.