The Bal des Quat’Z’Arts recreates the Picrocholine War The Rabelaisian spirit of the students of the École des beaux-arts

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Rabelais became one of the tutelary figures for the students at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Known in the Latin Quarter for their bawdy sense of humor, the young artists’ apprenticeship took place in a studio where they were introduced to a particular way of thinking, for which the bon vivant François Rabelais was a key reference. An idealized Rabelais and some of his characters were therefore part of the students’ references.