Here are some amazing woodcuts of various bizarre characters from “Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel,” translated into English as “The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel,” published in 1565.
h/t: monster brain
François Desprez was a French sculptor and illustrator who lived in the 16th century and is little known today. He collaborated several times with the illustrator, sculptor and publisher Richard Breton (1524-1571), who was more famous than Desprez.
The book, whose title can also be translated as “The Drolatic Dream of Pantagruel,” consists of 120 prints said to have been created by Rabelais. Thanks to the important work of Jean Porcher (1892–1966), a renowned historian and expert on French illuminated manuscripts, this engraving is now recognized as the work of Desprez. Nonetheless, they clearly participate in Rabelais's imagination in some way. Just observing them is enough to identify elements of grotesque aesthetics.