Gargantua: Chapter XXII - Les jeux 1942

This black ink woodcut, Gargantua: Chapter XXII - Les jeux, by Bernard Reder, looks like it was carved with great pressure into the surface of the block, the black ink sitting proud on the page. I'm thinking about the story it tells. Is that a naked figure giving someone a piggyback? Are they crushing him? Or is it a weird game, or some kind of dominance ritual? I love how Reder is referencing the satirical novels of Rabelais, where the characters are all about excess and wild behavior. The inky blacks sit sharply against the stark white paper, which gives it a feeling of high contrast and drama. The woman standing to the left, fully clothed, grounds the image and draws the viewer into the chaos. I guess this is what Reder was doing: taking inspiration from stories that were already out there in the world and finding a way to make them alive again.