CARTONE. — Painters call c. the preparatory drawing executed in the very dimensions that the painting will have. Extremely useful in any technique, it is indispensable in fresco painting.
The artist also prepares the c. in those techniques in which execution of the work is entrusted to skilled artisans, e.g., mosaicists and tapestry weavers (Raffaello’s c. for the Vatican tapestries, preserved in London, are famous). Also famous are the c. executed for the decoration of the Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence by Leonardo (Battle of Anghiari) and by Michelangelo (War of Pisa, of which only drawings and engravings nevertheless survive).
BIBL.: F. Baldinucci, Vocabolario toscano dell'arte del disegno, Florence 1881, p. 30; Both. de Tansia, Dessim, cortons, pastels et miniatures du musée national du Louvre, Paris 1879; O. H. Giglioli, s. V. ENOCH. Ital., IX, pp. 252–53.