Ante faber fueram Cyclopens aft v6i mecum Pictorem me fecit amor tudes innuit illud quie nota certa meis. Sic voi Vulcanam nato Venas arma rogarat Pictorem é fabro fimme Poeta facis. the politest and most learned men of his time. Hitherto, with the exception of very few instances, our English artists have been too much a people by themselves.-Graham's Poussin. THE CARTOONS, PARTICULARLY THOSE OF A DRAWING or painting upon large paper usually made as a pattern for painting in fresco, tapestry, musaick, &c. is called a cartoon. In either of these methods of delineation, the artist cannot trace his entire outline, as on the canvas, but is under the necessity of making the entire design the full size of the intended work on large paper joined together; the outline is then neatly punctured with a needle, pin, or other point, and is thus transferred, as wanted, upon the work. The finest works of this kind are the celebrated cartoons by Raffaelle, in the possession of the king, and preserved in the royal palace at Hampton Court, called emphatically the Cartoons. They are part of a series of designs made for tapestry, and were purchased by Charles I. They are deservedly reckoned among the finest of Raffaelle's works, and consequently among the choicest works of art. Richardson has given an accurate historical and critical description of them, and, in his opinion, they are more fitted to convey a true idea of the genius Raffaelle, than even the Loggia of the Vatican. The tapestries that have been wrought from them, are but shadows of the originals; yet these are preserved with great veneration at Rome, and only shown on a few days in the year, in the gallery which leads from St. Peter's to the Vatican, and never fail attracting an immense crowd to view them. Towards the end of the year 1797, the French government exhibited in the Salon d' Musée, several tapestries worked at Brussels, which were said to have been executed after the designs of Raffaelle. The Cartoons at Hampton Court have been several times engraved: first by Gribelin in Queen Anne's reign, next by Dorigny, and since that, by several inferior artists, most probably from the other engravings. They have also been engraved lately in small by Fitler, and of a very large size, and in a splendid and superior manner, by Holloway, (See Month. Mag. for Jan. 1809, vol. XXVI. p. 561.) Another very fine cartoon, by Raffaelle, of the Murder of the Innocents, is in the collection of Prince Hoare, Esq. secretary for foreign correspondence to the Royal Academy. POUSSIN'S DIFFICULTIES. POUSSIN found himself alone in Rome, Marini dead, the Cardinal Barberini in a foreign country, his own slender means exhausted by the journey from Paris, and as yet without friends or acquaintance. To relieve his pressing necessities, he sold two "battles," each containing a great number of figures, for seven crowns a-piece, and a "prophet" for less than two crowns; while a copy of that very picture, by another painter, produced double the sum. But though unfortunate as to his pecuniary concerns, Poussin was lucky in the first intimacy he formed in Rome. He lodged in the same house with Francis Quesnoy, a Fleming, generally called Il Fiamingo, a sculptor, intimately acquainted with Algarde, to whom he introduced Poussin; and with these two intelligent artists he studied and measured most of the antique statues then in Rome. From them also he occasionally received such pecuniary assistance as their slender means afforded, and from the want of which his unwearied exertions could not entirely preserve him. The sale of his battle pieces and his prophet, as we have seen, could avail him but little, nor could the sixty crowns which he received for his celebrated picture of "the Ark of God among the Philistines," have done much more than pay him for the expense of painting it. This work, which is one of his finest compositions, obtained considerable applause at Rome. The reputation of the painter rose considerably as soon as this picture came to be known; it availed him but little as to his pecuniary affairs; and he received no more than his sixty crowns, while |