Apollo, God of the arts, medicine, and poetry, and enemy of darkness and pursuer of crime, represents the enlightened spirit wanted by the Bourbons for the Salon del Prado to encourage the development of culture and science.

Due to the importance of the project, its execution included several sculptors. The final model was constructed by Manuel Álvarez in 1781, but does not conclude the figure of Apollo, who died in 1797. King Carlos IV and his wife accelerated the completion of the project because they wanted to inaugurate the monument on the occasion of the wedding of the then-Prince of Asturias, would-be King Fernando VII, with María Antonia de Nápoles. Finally, the fountain of Apollo was completed in 1802.

This statue of the God of music is considered one of the best classics erected in Spain by the elegance of the proportions and the captuere of divine movement and balance. Apollo appears carrying a lyre and accompanied by allegorical sculptures of the four seasons, since, as the Sun God, he is responsible for the birth and change of seasons.