I have long maintained that art has its rivers that have been flowing through culture at all times, and my friend Roger Malbert just sent me the interesting link (above), posted by The Public Domain Review.
This bears out my view, I feel, and I suggest those interested in the various modes that art and literature have always employed visit my post ART AND ITS DARK SIDE – an introduction to the eight rivers of Art.
Another friend, Tim Hyman, suggested these illustrations of Rabelais: from the
SONGES DROLATIQUES DE PANTAGRUEL- 1565- by Francois Desprez (?)

So from the formal preoccupations of cubism to the capricious inventions of surrealism, all forms of inventiveness have precedents, and the new is, rather, that which is taken up again.