The Celebrated Gargantua

Currently not on view

The Celebrated Gargantua

c. 1840

Artist/maker unknown, French Published by Pellerin, Imprimeur-Libraire, Épinal, France (active 19th century)

In 1546, François Rabelais (1483-1553) began writing The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a series of satirical novels inspired by early French folklore that recounted the extraordinary deeds of a giant named Gargantua. The banquet scene in this print represents a nineteenth-century adaptation of this fable. Once a personification of the State devouring individuals' property, Gargantua serves here instead as a humorous warning against gluttony. At the age of three, he would eat four bulls, fifty sheep, and three hundred partridges for dinner alone. As Gargantua grew up, his appetite swelled to fatal proportions, until one day he died of indigestion.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Titles:

The Celebrated Gargantua

Date:

c. 1840

Artists:

Artist/maker unknown, French Published by Pellerin, Imprimeur-Libraire, Épinal, France (active 19th century)

Medium:

Stencil-colored relief print

Dimensions:

Image: 12 x 20 15/16 inches (30.5 x 53.2 cm) Sheet: 15 7/8 x 25 3/16 inches (40.3 x 64 cm)

Classification:

Prints

Credit Line:

Gift of Alice Newton Osborn, 1958

Accession Number:

1958-133-142

Geography:

Made in Épinal, France, Europe

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Currently not on view