, in South Kensington, having
been removed thither from their former home, the palace of Hampton
Court. With respect to their merits, they count among the best of
Raphael's productions; Lanzi even pronounces them to be in beauty
superior to anything else the world has ever seen. Not that they all
present features of perfect loveliness, and limbs of faultless
symmetry,--this is far from being the case; but in harmony of design, in
the universal adaptation of means to one great end, and in the grasp of
soul which they display, they stand among the foremost works of the
designing art. The history of these cartoons is curious. Leo X. employed
Raphael in designing (in 1515-1516) a series of Scriptural subjects,
which were first to be finished in cartoons, and then to be imitated in
tapestry by Flemish artists, and used for the decoration of the Sistine
Chapel. Two principal sets of tapestries were accordingly executed at
Arras in Flanders; but it is supposed that neither Leo nor Raphael lived
to see them. The set which went to Rome was twice carried away by
invaders, first in 1527 and afterwards in 1798. In the first instance
they were restored in a perfect state; but after their return in 1814
one was wanting--the cupidity of a Genoese having induced him to destroy
it for the sake of the precious metal which it contained. Authorities
differ as to the original number of cartoons, but there appear to have
been twenty-five,--some by Raphael himself, assisted by Gianfrancesco
Penni, others by the surviving pupils of Raphael. The cartoons after
which the tapestries were woven were not, ~~ it would seem, restored to
Rome, but remained as lumber about the manufactory in Arras till after
the revolution of the Low Countries, when seven of them which had
escaped destruction were purchased by Charles I., on the recommendation
of Rubens. They were found much injured, "holes being pricked in them
for the weavers to pounce the outlines, and in other parts they were
almost cut through by tracing." It has never been ascertained what
became of the other cartoons. Three tapestries, the cartoons of which by
Raphael no longer exist, are in the Vatican,--representing the stoning
of St Stephen, the conversion of St Paul, and St Paul in prison at
Philippi.

Besides the cartoons of Raphael, two, to which an extraordinary
celebrity in art-history attaches, were those executed in competition by
Leonardo da Vinci and by Michelangelo--the former named