Prints by James Fittler after Raphael, 'Cartons [sic] Done from the Originals in His Majesty's Collection' a bound volume of prints of the Raphael Cartoons, Great Britain, etchings and engravings, 1827-1835

Bound volume of prints taken from the Raphael cartoons, single-sided pages interleaved with protective sheet. Binding lettered on front cover 'CARTONS OF RAPHAEL'. Inside the front board, the armorial bookplate of Thomas Williams.

Plate 1: Illustrated titlepage, also printed from a single plate, with title, a portrait of Raphael in an oval below the title, and above a drape with coat of arms, and either side a lion and unicorn.

Plate 2: A portrait bust in profile, cameo style in a medalion of James Fittler surrounded by 'trophy' style ornament featuring artists, pallete, paintbrushes, compass and printing tools. Below this an image featuring in a group personifications of Religion seated holding a bible and the three Fine Arts seated in a group around her, holding their attributes.

Plate 3: Christ's Charge to Peter.

Plate 4: Elymas the Sorcerer Struck with Blindness.

Plate 5: Paul Preaching at Athens.

Plate 6: Paul and Barnabas at Lystra.

Plate 7: The Lame Man Healed by Peter & John.

Plate 8: The Death of Ananias.

Plate 9: Miraculous Draught of Fishes.

Tipped in at the back, an advertisement for A Treatise on Painting by John Burnet.


For another impression of the portrait of Fittler see E.1121-1931.

Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem

The Dictionary of National Biography mentions a Welsh hymn writer called Thomas Williams whose dates were 1760-1844.

The dating of this work derives from two facts:- Practical hints on Painting was published by J. Burnet in 1827 and the text of the advertisement suggests A Treatise on Painting is a fuller, later edition of this work. James Fittler died in 1835.

The so-called Raphael Cartoons, which the images in this volume reproduce, are seven full size designs for tapestries by the great Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). They illustrate passages from the Bible concerning the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. None of them is smaller than ten feet high by thirteen feet wide. They belong to Her Majesty the Queen and have been on loan to this museum since 1865. The earliest print relating to the Raphael Cartoons dates from 1516, the year in which Raphael received final payment for the commission. It inaugurates an extraordinary case study in the history of printmaking, stretching over more than four hundred and fifty years and across a wide range of printmaking techniques.

This slim, handy-sized volume of prints of the Cartoons has no text. A portrait of the engraver at the front is captioned 'To lead the Fine Arts into the Service of Religion'. Inside the front cover is the heraldic bookplate of one Thomas Williams, who may have been a Welsh hymn writer of that name who lived from 1760 to 1844. This volume was also aimed at would-be artists as there is an advertisement for an artist's manual, John Burnet's A Treatise on Painting pasted into the back.

E.111-1994