Tekstblad met verklaring van de prent met Apollo, p. 5 1695

Charles Perrault wrote this text sheet about Apollo as part of a series on 'fine art', sometime around the late 17th or early 18th century. It speaks to the cultural significance of classical figures during the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Perrault frames Apollo as central to both artistic and scientific creation. The text describes Apollo surrounded by light and the nine muses, suggesting his role as a divine source of inspiration. The idea that Apollo animates poets and invented the arts and sciences speaks to the period's understanding of artistic and intellectual pursuits as divinely inspired and interconnected. In a way that reinforces the authority of the academic system that trained and patronized artists. Perrault was a member of the Académie Française and involved in the "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns" arguing that modern literature and art could surpass classical achievements. Examining Perrault's broader writings and the context of the Académie des Beaux-Arts helps us understand the cultural and institutional forces shaping artistic values at the time.