This statuette is rare in being a well-documented French bronze. A terracotta model of the subject by François Girardon appears in a print depicting objects in his possession and was mentioned in an inventory of the sculptor's studio drawn up after his death. One version of Girardon's Apollo in bronze--perhaps this very piece--was at the palace of Schleissheim in Germany by 1722, evidence that bronze casts of the terracotta were made soon after the sculptor's death in 1715. The subject represents the sun god, symbol of Louis XIV of France, who provided most of Girardon's commissions. The sculptor almost certainly began with a compositional sketch by Charles Le Brun, first painter to the king. The size and detail of this work are those of a finished model to be shown to a patron for approval. The Apollo seems not to have been carried out on a large scale, but the dignified style of this bronze exemplifies the courtly art created for Louis XIV's palace at Versailles. Dean Walker, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 136.