Renaissance art in France. French renaissance painting
Even during the Hundred Years War, the process of the formation of the French nation, the birth of the French national state, began. The political unification of the country was completed mainly under Louis XI. By the middle of the XV century. also refers to the beginning of the French Renaissance, in the early stages still closely associated with gothic art. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced French artists with Italian art, and from the end of the 15th century. a decisive break with the Gothic tradition begins, Italian art is rethought in connection with its own national tasks. The French Renaissance had the character of court culture. (The folk character was most evident in French Renaissance literature, above all in the work of François Rabelais, with his full-blooded imagery, typical Gallic wit and cheerfulness.)
As in Netherlandish art, realistic tendencies are observed primarily in the miniature of both theological and secular books. First major artist French Renaissance-Jean Fouquet (circa 1420-1481), court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. Both in portraits (portrait of Charles VII, circa 1445) and in religious compositions (diptych from Melun), thoroughness of writing is combined with monumentality in the interpretation of the image. This monumentality is created by the chasing of forms, the isolation and integrity of the silhouette, the static posture, and the laconicism of color. In fact, the Madonna of the Melen diptych was painted in just two colors - bright red and blue (the model for it was the beloved of Charles VII - a fact impossible in medieval art). The same compositional clarity and accuracy of the drawing, the sonority of color are characteristic of numerous Fouquet miniatures (Boccaccio. “Life J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment, famous men And Women", Paris, Louvre circa 1458). The fields of the manuscripts are filled with the image of the modern Fouquet of the crowd, the landscapes of his native Touraine.
J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment. Paris, Louvre
The first stages of Renaissance plastic art are also connected with the homeland of Fouquet - the city of Tours. Antique and Renaissance motifs appear in the reliefs of Michel Colombe (1430/31-1512). His tombstones are distinguished by a wise acceptance of death, consonant with the mood of archaic and classical ancient stelae (the tomb of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his wife Marguerite de Foix, 1502-1507, Nantes Cathedral).
At first XVI century France was the largest absolutist state in Western Europe. The court becomes the center of culture, especially under Francis I, an art connoisseur, patron of Leonardo. The Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio, invited by the king's sister Margherita of Navarre, were the founders of the Fontainebleau school ("Fontebleau is the new Rome," Vasari writes). The castle in Fontainebleau, numerous castles along the Loire and Cher rivers (Blois, Chambord, Chenonceau), the restructuring of the old Louvre palace (architect Pierre Lescaut and sculptor Jean Goujon) are the first evidence of liberation from the Gothic tradition and the use of Renaissance forms in architecture (the Louvre was first used ancient order system). And although the castles on the Loire are still outwardly similar to medieval ones in their details (moats, donjons, drawbridges), their interior decor is Renaissance, even rather Manneristic. Fonteblo Castle with its painting, ornamental molding, round sculpture is evidence of the victory of Italian culture in form, antique in plot and purely Gallic in spirit.
J. Clouet. Portrait of Francis I. Paris, Louvre
The 16th century is the time of the brilliant flowering of the French portrait, both in painting and in pencil (Italian pencil, sanguine, watercolor). In this genre, the painter Jean Clouet (circa 1485/88-1541), the court painter of Francis I, became especially famous, whose entourage, as well as the king himself, he immortalized in his portrait gallery. Small in size, carefully painted, Clouet's portraits nevertheless give the impression of being multifaceted in characterization, ceremonial in form. In the ability to notice the most important thing in the model, without impoverishing it and preserving its complexity, his son Francois Clouet (circa 1516-1572), the most important French artist of the 16th century, went even further. Clouet's colors are reminiscent of precious enamels in their intensity and purity (portrait of Elisabeth of Austria, circa 1571). Clouet captured the entire French court of the mid-16th century in exceptional mastery of pencil, sanguine, and watercolor portraits. (portrait of Henry II, Mary Stuart, etc.).
The victory of the Renaissance worldview in French plastic art is associated with the name of Jean Goujon (circa 1510-1566/68), whose most famous work is the reliefs of the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris (the architectural part is Pierre Lescaut; 1547-1549). Lungs, slim figures, whose folds of clothes are echoed by jets of water from jugs, are interpreted with amazing musicality, imbued with poetry, chased and honed and laconic and restrained in form. A sense of proportion, grace, harmony, subtlety of taste will henceforth be invariably associated with French art.
In the work of Goujon's younger contemporary Germain Pilon (1535-1590), instead of images of ideally beautiful, harmonically clear images, concrete-life, dramatic, gloomy-exalted images appear (see his tombstones). The richness of his plastic language serves cold analysis, reaching the point of ruthlessness in characteristics, in which he can find an analogue, except in Holbein. The expressiveness of Pilon's dramatic art is typical of the late Renaissance and testifies to the impending end of the Renaissance in France.
J. Goujon. Nymphs. Relief of the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris. Stone
The features of the crisis of the artistic ideals of the Renaissance were especially clearly manifested in mannerism, which was taking shape at the end of the Renaissance (from maniera - technique, or rather, manierismo - pretentiousness, mannerisms), - an obvious imitation, as if the secondary style, with all the virtuosity of technology and sophistication of forms, aestheticization image, hyperbolization of individual details, sometimes even expressed in the title of the work, as, for example, in Parmigianino's "Madonna with a Long Neck", exaggeration of feelings, violation of the harmony of proportions, balance of forms - disharmony, deformation, which in itself is alien to the nature of Italian Renaissance art.
Mannerism is usually divided into early and mature. Early Mannerism - centered in Florence. This is the work of such masters as J. Pontormo, D. Rosso, A. de Volterra, J. Romano. The murals of the latter in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua are full of unexpected, almost frightening effects, the composition is overloaded, the balance is disturbed, the movements are exaggerated and convulsive - but everything is theatrical and superficial, coldly pathetic and does not touch the heart (see the fresco "The Death of the Giants", for example ).
Mature mannerism is more elegant, refined and aristocratic. Its centers are Parma and Bologna (Primaticcio, since 1531 was the head of the Fonteblo school in France), Rome and Florence (Bronzino, a student of Pontormo; D. Vasari; sculptor and jeweler B. Cellini), as well as Parma (already mentioned Parmigianino, his Madonnas are always depicted with elongated bodies and small heads, with fragile, thin fingers, with mannered, pretentious movements, always cold in color and cold in image).
Mannerism was limited to Italy, it spread to Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, influencing their painting and especially applied art, in which the unbridled fantasy of the Mannerists found fertile ground and a wide field of activity.
Even during the Hundred Years War, the process of the formation of the French nation, the birth of the French nation state. The political unification of the country was completed mainly under Louis XI. By the middle of the XV century. also refers to the beginning of the French Renaissance, in the early stages still closely associated with Gothic art. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced French artists to Italian art, and from the end of the 15th century. a decisive break with the Gothic tradition begins, Italian art is rethought in connection with its own national tasks. The French Renaissance had the character of court culture. ( folk character most of all manifested itself in French Renaissance literature, primarily in the work of Francois Rabelais, with his full-blooded imagery, typical Gallic wit and cheerfulness.)
As in Netherlandish art, realistic tendencies are observed primarily in the miniature of both theological and secular books. The first major painter of the French Renaissance was Jean Fouquet (circa 1420-1481), court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI. Both in portraits (portrait of Charles VII, circa 1445) and in religious compositions (diptych from Melun), thoroughness of writing is combined with monumentality in the interpretation of the image. This monumentality is created by the chasing of forms, the isolation and integrity of the silhouette, the static posture, and the laconicism of color. In fact, the Madonna of the Melen diptych was painted in just two colors - bright red and blue (the model for it was the beloved of Charles VII - a fact impossible in medieval art). The same compositional clarity and accuracy of the drawing, sonority of color are characteristic of Fouquet's numerous miniatures (Boccaccio. "Life of J. Fouquet. Portrait of Charles VII. Fragment, famous men and women", Paris, Louvre around 1458). The fields of the manuscripts are filled with the image of the modern Fouquet of the crowd, the landscapes of his native Touraine.
The first stages of Renaissance plastic art are also connected with the homeland of Fouquet - the city of Tours. Antique and Renaissance motifs appear in the reliefs of Michel Colombe (1430/31-1512). His tombstones are distinguished by a wise acceptance of death, consonant with the mood of archaic and classical ancient stelae (the tomb of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his wife Marguerite de Foix, 1502-1507, Nantes Cathedral).
From the beginning of the 16th century, France was the largest absolutist state Western Europe. The court becomes the center of culture, especially under Francis I, an art connoisseur, patron of Leonardo. The Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio, invited by the king's sister Margherita of Navarre, were the founders of the Fontainebleau school ("Fontebleau is the new Rome," Vasari writes). The castle in Fontainebleau, numerous castles along the Loire and Cher rivers (Blois, Chambord, Chenonceau), the restructuring of the old Louvre palace (architect Pierre Lescaut and sculptor Jean Goujon) are the first evidence of liberation from the Gothic tradition and the use of Renaissance forms in architecture (the Louvre was first used ancient order system). And although the castles on the Loire are still outwardly similar to medieval ones in their details (moats, donjons, drawbridges), their interior decor is Renaissance, even rather Manneristic. Fonteblo Castle with its painting, ornamental molding, round sculpture is evidence of the victory of Italian culture in form, antique in plot and purely Gallic in spirit.
The 16th century is the time of the brilliant flowering of the French portrait, both in painting and in pencil (Italian pencil, sanguine, watercolor). In this genre, the painter Jean Clouet (circa 1485/88-1541), the court painter of Francis I, became especially famous, whose entourage, as well as the king himself, he immortalized in his portrait gallery. Small in size, carefully painted, Clouet's portraits nevertheless give the impression of being multifaceted in characterization, ceremonial in form. In the ability to notice the most important thing in the model, without impoverishing it and preserving its complexity, his son Francois Clouet (circa 1516-1572), the most important French artist of the 16th century, went even further. Clouet's colors are reminiscent of precious enamels in their intensity and purity (portrait of Elisabeth of Austria, circa 1571). Clouet captured the entire French court of the mid-16th century in exceptional mastery of pencil, sanguine, and watercolor portraits. (portrait of Henry II, Mary Stuart, etc.).
The victory of the Renaissance worldview in French plastic art is associated with the name of Jean Goujon (circa 1510-1566/68), whose most famous work is the reliefs of the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris (the architectural part is Pierre Lescaut; 1547-1549). Light, slender figures, whose folds of clothes are echoed by jets of water from jugs, are interpreted with amazing musicality, imbued with poetry, chased and honed and laconic and restrained in form. A sense of proportion, grace, harmony, subtlety of taste will henceforth be invariably associated with French art.
In the work of Goujon's younger contemporary Germain Pilon (1535-1590), instead of images of ideally beautiful, harmonically clear images, concrete-life, dramatic, gloomy-exalted images appear (see his tombstones). The richness of his plastic language serves a cold analysis, reaching to the point of ruthlessness in characterization, in which it can only be found analogous to Holbein. expressiveness dramatic art The pylon is typical of the late Renaissance and testifies to the impending end of the Renaissance in France.
The features of the crisis of the artistic ideals of the Renaissance were especially clearly manifested in mannerism, which was taking shape at the end of the Renaissance (from maniera - technique, or rather, manierismo - pretentiousness, mannerisms), - an obvious imitation, as if the secondary style, with all the virtuosity of technology and sophistication of forms, aestheticization image, hyperbolization of individual details, sometimes even expressed in the title of the work, as, for example, in Parmigianino's "Madonna with a Long Neck", exaggeration of feelings, violation of the harmony of proportions, balance of forms - disharmony, deformation, which in itself is alien to the nature of art Italian Renaissance.
Mannerism is usually divided into early and mature. Early Mannerism - centered in Florence. This is the work of such masters as J. Pontormo, D. Rosso, A. de Volterra, J. Romano. The murals of the latter in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua are full of unexpected, almost frightening effects, the composition is overloaded, the balance is disturbed, the movements are exaggerated and convulsive - but everything is theatrical and superficial, coldly pathetic and does not touch the heart (see the fresco "The Death of the Giants", for example ).
Mature mannerism is more elegant, refined and aristocratic. Its centers are Parma and Bologna (Primaticcio, since 1531 was the head of the Fonteblo school in France), Rome and Florence (Bronzino, a student of Pontormo; D. Vasari; sculptor and jeweler B. Cellini), as well as Parma (already mentioned Parmigianino, his Madonnas are always depicted with elongated bodies and small heads, with fragile, thin fingers, with mannered, pretentious movements, always cold in color and cold in image).
Mannerism was limited to Italy, it spread to Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, influencing their painting and especially applied art, in which the unrestrained imagination of the Mannerists found fertile ground and a wide field of activity.
The beginning of the French Renaissance dates back to the middle of the 15th century. It was preceded by the process of formation of the French nation and the formation of a national state. On the royal throne, the representative of the new dynasty - Valois. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced the artists to the achievements of Italian art. Gothic traditions and Netherlandish tendencies in art are being supplanted Italian Renaissance. The French Renaissance had the character of a court culture, the foundations of which were laid by kings-patrons starting with Charles V.
The biggest creator Early Renaissance considered the court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI Jean Fouquet (1420-1481). He is also called the great master of the French Renaissance. He was the first in France to consistently embody the aesthetic principles of the Italian Quattrocento, which presupposed, first of all, a clear, rational vision. real world and comprehension of the nature of things through the knowledge of its internal laws. Most creative heritage Fouquet make up miniatures from the books of hours. In addition, he painted landscapes, portraits, paintings on historical subjects. Fouquet was the only artist of his time who had an epic vision of history, whose greatness is commensurate with the Bible and antiquity.
At the beginning of the 16th century, France turned into the largest absolutist state in Western Europe. Center cultural life the royal court becomes, and the first connoisseurs and connoisseurs of beauty are those close and the royal retinue. Under Francis I, admirer of the great Leonardo da Vinci, italian art becomes the official fashion. The Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio, invited by Margherita of Navarre, sister of Francis I, founded the Fontainebleau school in 1530. This term is usually called the direction in French painting, which arose in the 16th century in the castle of Fontainebleau. In addition, it is used in relation to works on mythological subjects, sometimes voluptuous, and to intricate allegories created by by unknown artists and also ascending to mannerism. The Fontainebleau school became famous for creating majestic decorative paintings of the castle ensembles.
In the 16th century, the foundations of the French literary language and high style were laid. The French poet Joashen Du Bellay (c. 1522-1560) in 1549 published a program manifesto "Protection and glorification French". He and the poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) were the most prominent representatives French poetic school of the Renaissance - "Pleiades", which saw its goal in raising the French language to the same level with the classical languages \u200b\u200b- Greek and Latin. The poets of the Pleiades focused on ancient literature.
Among the prominent representatives of the French Renaissance was also the French humanist writer Francois Rabelais (1494-1553). His satirical novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" is an encyclopedic monument of French Renaissance culture. The work was based on the common in the 16th century folk books about giants (the giants Gargantua, Pantagruel, the truth-seeker Panurge). Rejecting medieval asceticism, restriction of spiritual freedom, hypocrisy and prejudice, Rabelais reveals the humanistic ideals of his time in the grotesque images of his heroes.
point in cultural development France of the 16th century was set by the great humanist philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The book of essays, marked by freethinking and a kind of skeptical humanism, represents a set of judgments about everyday mores and principles of human behavior in various circumstances. Sharing the idea of pleasure as the goal of human existence, Montaigne interprets it in the Epicurean spirit - accepting everything that is released to man by nature.
French art of the XVI-XVII centuries. based on the traditions of the French and Italian Renaissance. Fouquet's paintings and drawings, Goujon's sculptures, castles from the time of Francis I, the Fontainebleau Palace and the Louvre, Ronsard's poetry and Rabelais's prose, Montaigne's philosophical experiments - everything bears the stamp of a classic understanding of form, strict logic, rationalism, and a developed sense of grace.
The beginning of the French Renaissance dates back to the middle of the 15th century. It was preceded by the process of formation of the French nation and the formation of a national state. On the royal throne, the representative of the new dynasty - Valois. Under Louis XI, the political unification of the country was completed. The campaigns of the French kings in Italy introduced the artists to the achievements of Italian art. Gothic traditions and Netherlandish art tendencies are supplanted by the Italian Renaissance. The French Renaissance had the character of a court culture, the foundations of which were laid by kings-patrons starting with Charles V.
Jean Fouquet (1420-1481), the court painter of Charles VII and Louis XI, is considered the greatest creator of the Early Renaissance. He is also called the great master of the French Renaissance.
He was the first in France to consistently embody the aesthetic principles of the Italian Quattrocento, which presupposed, first of all, a clear, rational vision of the real Zh world and comprehension of the nature of things through the knowledge of its internal laws. In 1475 it becomes
"King's painter". In this capacity, he creates many ceremonial portraits, including Charles VII. Most of Fouquet's creative legacy is made up of miniatures from watch books, in the performance of which his workshop sometimes took part. Fouquet painted landscapes, portraits, paintings on historical subjects. Fouquet was the only artist of his time who had an epic vision of history, whose greatness is commensurate with the Bible and antiquity. His miniatures and book illustrations were made in a realistic manner, in particular for the edition of the Decameron by G. Boccaccio.
At the beginning of the 16th century, France turned into the largest absolutist state in Western Europe. The royal court becomes the center of cultural life, and the first connoisseurs and connoisseurs of beauty are the courtiers and the royal retinue. Under Francis I, an admirer of the great Leonardo da Vinci, Italian art becomes the official fashion. The Italian mannerists Rosso and Primaticcio, invited by Margherita of Navarre, sister of Francis I, founded the Fontainebleau school in 1530. This term is usually called the direction in French painting, which arose in the 16th century in the castle of Fontainebleau. In addition, it is used in relation to works on mythological subjects, sometimes voluptuous, and to intricate allegories created by unknown artists and also dating back to mannerism. The Fontainebleau school became famous for creating majestic decorative paintings of the castle ensembles. The art of the Fontainebleau school, along with the Parisian art of the early 17th century, played a transitional role in the history of French painting: in it one can find the first symptoms of both classicism and baroque.
In the 16th century, the foundations of the French literary language and high style were laid. The French poet Joashen du Bellay (c. 1522-1560) in 1549 published a program manifesto "Protection and glorification of the French language." He and the poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) were the most prominent representatives of the French poetic school of the Renaissance - "Pleiades", which saw its goal in raising the French language to the same level with the classical languages \u200b\u200b- Greek and Latin. The poets of the Pleiades focused on ancient literature. They are from
seemed to be from the traditions of medieval literature and sought to enrich the French language. The formation of the French literary language was closely connected with the centralization of the country and the desire to use a single national language for this.
Similar trends in the development of national languages and literatures were also manifested in other European countries.
Among the prominent representatives of the French Renaissance was also the French humanist writer Francois Rabelais (1494-1553). His satirical novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" is an encyclopedic monument of French Renaissance culture. The work was based on folk books about giants common in the 16th century (the giants Gargantua, Pantagruel, the truth-seeker Panurge). Rejecting medieval asceticism, restriction of spiritual freedom, hypocrisy and prejudice, Rabelais reveals the humanistic ideals of his time in the grotesque images of his heroes.
The great humanist philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) put an end to the cultural development of France in the 16th century. Come from a wealthy merchant family, Montaigne received an excellent humanistic education and, at the insistence of his father, took up law. The fame of Montaigne was brought by the “Experiments” (1580-1588) written in the solitude of the family castle of Montaigne near Bordeaux, which gave the name to a whole trend of European literature - essays (French essai - experience). The book of essays, marked by freethinking and a kind of skeptical humanism, represents a set of judgments about everyday mores and principles of human behavior in various circumstances. Sharing the idea of pleasure as the goal of human existence, Montaigne interprets it in the Epicurean spirit - accepting everything that is released to man by nature.
French art of the XVI-XVII centuries. based on the traditions of the French and Italian Renaissance. Fouquet's paintings and drawings, Goujon's sculptures, castles from the time of Francis I, the Fontainebleau Palace and the Louvre, Ronsard's poetry and Rabelais's prose, Montaigne's philosophical experiments - everything bears the stamp of a classic understanding of form, strict logic, rationalism, a developed sense of grace.
French Renaissance 16th century
In the XVI century. in France, humanistic ideas are spreading . This was partly facilitated by the contact of France with the humanistic culture of Italy during campaigns in this country. But of decisive importance was the fact that the entire course of the socio-economic development of France created favorable conditions for the independent development of such ideas and cultural trends, which were acquired on French soil original coloring.The completion of the unification of the country, the strengthening of its economic unity, which found expression in the development of the domestic market and the gradual transformation of Paris into a major economic center, was accompanied by XVI - XVII centuries. gradual formation of national French culture . This process went on and deepened, although it was very complex, contradictory, slowed down due to the civil wars that shocked and ruined the country.
Major developments have taken place national French language . True, in the outlying regions and provinces of Northern France there still existed big number local dialects: Norman, Picardy, Champagne, etc. There were also dialects of the Provencal language, but all greater value and distribution was acquired by Northern French literary language: laws were issued on it, legal proceedings were conducted, poets, writers, chroniclers wrote their works. The development of the domestic market, the growth of printing, the centralization policy of absolutism contributed to the gradual displacement of local dialects, although in the 16th century. this process was still far from complete.
However Renaissance wore in France quite noticeable aristocratic-noble imprint. As elsewhere, it was associated with the revival of ancient science - philosophy, literature - and affected primarily in the field of philology. A major philologist was Bude, a kind of French Reuchlin, who studied Greek language so well that he spoke and wrote it, imitating the style of the ancients. Bude was not only a philologist, but also a mathematician, lawyer and historian.
Another outstanding early humanist in France was Lefebvre d'Etaple, Bude's teacher in the field of mathematics. His treatises on arithmetic and cosmography first created a school of mathematicians and geographers in France. Luther, expressed two fundamental provisions of the Reformation: justification by faith and Holy Scripture as a source of truth.He was a dreamy and quiet humanist, frightened of the consequences of his own ideas, when he saw from Luther's speech what this could lead to.
important event Renaissance in 16th-century France was the foundation of a kind of new university, along with the University of Paris, the so-called "French College" (College de France) - an open association of scientists who disseminated humanistic science.
Imitation of antique models was combined with the development of national aspirations. The poets Joaquim Dubelle (1522-1560), Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) and their supporters organized a group called the Pleiades. In 1549 she published a manifesto, the very title of which, "The Defense and Glorification of the French Language," reflected the national aspirations of the French Renaissance. The manifesto refuted the opinion that only ancient languages could embody high poetic ideas in a worthy form, and affirmed the value and significance of the French language. The Pleiades was recognized by the court, and Ronsard became the court poet. He wrote odes, sonnets, pastorals, impromptu. Ronsard's lyrics sang of a man, his feelings and intimate experiences, odes and impromptu on the occasion of political and military events served to exalt the absolute monarch.
Along with the development and processing of the ancient heritage French Renaissance literature
absorbed the best samples and traditions of oral folk art. It reflected the character traits inherent in the talented and freedom-loving French people: its cheerful disposition, courage, industriousness, subtle humor and the smashing power of satirical speech, turned with its edge against parasites, quarrelsome people, covetous people, self-serving saints, ignorant scholastics who lived at the expense of the people.
Most Outstanding Representative 16th century French humanism was François Rabelais (1494-1553) . The most famous work of Rabelais is the satirical novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel", a fairy-tale form of the novel, based on old French fairy tales about giant kings. This is a grandiose, full of wit and sarcasm, a satire on feudal society. Rabelais presented the feudal lords in the form of rude giants, gluttons, drunkards, bullies, alien to any ideals, leading an animal life. He exposes foreign policy kings, their endless, senseless wars. Rabelais condemns the injustice of the feudal court ("Isle of Fluffy Cats"), mocks the absurdity of medieval scholastic science ("Disputation of the Bells"), ridicules monasticism, attacks the Catholic Church and papal authority. Rabelais contrasted people from the people with satirical figures embodying the vices of the ruling class (brother Jean is the defender of native land, a peasant - or Panurge, in whose image the features of an urban plebeian are captured). Rabelais in his novel ridicules not only the Catholic Church, but also Protestantism (papimans and papifigs).
How humanist Rabelais stood for the all-round, harmonious development human personality. He embodied all his humanistic ideals in a kind of utopia "Thelema Abbey", in which free people live, taking care of their physical development and spiritual improvement in the sciences and art.
