Abstract :
In studies of English artistic culture of the first half of the eighteenth century, the notion of
art-historical consciousness has attracted little attention, in contrast to an immense interest in issues of picture
consumption and taste. This article provides a new perspective on the rise of art-historical consciousness by
examining publications associated with the Raphael Cartoons, then at Hampton Court. Through a wide
range of engraved reproductions and written commentaries, the Cartoons not only came to be the most visible
Old Master paintings in England in the period, but also became central to an on-going process whereby ideas
about painting were formulated in terms of artistic standards and historical development. The Cartoons
publications illustrate a trend in which works of art formerly enjoyed privately by royal or aristocratic
collectors became increasingly accessible to wider audiences. In consequence, ideas associated with these
works penetrated diverse levels of society and art-historical consciousness assumed a public value.
