Editing Charles Perrault (section)

==Life and work==
Charles Perrault was born in Paris on 12 January 1628,<ref name=Michel1996>Christian Michel (1996). [https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T066512 "Perrault family: (3) Charles Perrault"], vol. 24, p. 470, in ''[[The Dictionary of Art]]'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|title= UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021|work= [[United Press International]] | date= January 12, 2021|accessdate=February 27, 2021 | archive-date= January 29, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210129023331/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|url-status=live|quote = …French fairy tale writer Charles Perrault, author of the Mother Goose stories, in 1628…}}</ref> to a wealthy [[bourgeois]] family and was the seventh child of [[Pierre Perrault (father)]] and Paquette Le Clerc. He attended very good schools and studied law before embarking on a career in government service, following in the footsteps of his father and elder brother Jean.{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}}

He took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting. In 1654, he moved in with his brother [[Pierre Perrault (scientist)|Pierre]], who had purchased the position of chief tax collector of the city of Paris. When the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres|Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres]] was founded in 1663, Perrault was appointed its secretary and served under [[Jean Baptiste Colbert]], finance minister to [[King Louis XIV]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Belle|editor-last=Sideman|title=The World's Best Fairy Tales|page=837|publisher=[[The Reader's Digest Association]]|location=New York City|date=1977|isbn=978-0895770769}}</ref> [[Jean Chapelain]], [[Amable de Bourzeys]], and [[Jacques Cassagne]] (the King's librarian) were also appointed.{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}} 

Using his influence as Colbert's administrative aide, in April 1667 he was able to get his brother, [[Claude Perrault]], appointed to a committee of three, the Petit Conseil, also including [[Louis Le Vau]] and [[Charles Le Brun]], who designed the new section of the Louvre, the [[Louvre Colonnade|Colonnade]], built between 1667 and 1674, to be overseen by Colbert.<ref>Robert W. Berger (1994), {{pp.|34|35}}, in ''A Royal Passion: Louis XIV as Patron of Architecture''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0521440297}}.</ref> The design was chosen over designs by [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]] (with whom, as Perrault recounts in his ''Memoirs'', he had stormy relations while the Italian artist was in residence at Louis' court in 1665) and [[François Mansart]].<ref>For the conflict between Bernini and Perrault in Paris, see {{cite book |first=Franco |last=Mormando |title=Bernini: His Life and His Rome |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2011 |pages=268–288 |isbn=978-0-226-53852-5 }}</ref> One of the factors leading to this choice included the fear of high costs, and second was the personal antagonism between Bernini and leading members of Louis' court, including Colbert and Perrault. King Louis himself maintained a public air of benevolence towards Bernini, ordering the issuing of a royal bronze portrait medal in honor of the artist in 1674.<ref>{{cite book |first=Franco |last=Mormando |title=Bernini: His Life and His Rome |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=2011 |pages=245–288, passim |isbn=978-0-226-53852-5 }}</ref> However, as Perrault further describes in his ''Memoirs'', the king harbored private resentment at Bernini's displays of arrogance. The king was so displeased with Bernini's equestrian statue of him that he ordered it to be destroyed; however, his courtiers prevailed upon him to have it redone instead, with a head depicting the Roman hero [[Marcus Curtius]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zarucchi|first=Jeanne Morgan|date=2013|title=Perrault's Memoirs and Bernini: A Reconsideration|journal=Renaissance Studies|volume=27|issue=3|pages=356–70|doi=10.1111/j.1477-4658.2012.00814.x|s2cid=194114654 }}</ref>

In 1668, Perrault wrote ''La Peinture'' (''Painting'') to honor the king's first painter, Charles Le Brun. He also wrote ''Courses de tetes et de bague'' (''Head and Ring Races'', 1670), written to commemorate the 1662 celebrations staged by Louis for his mistress, [[Louise de La Vallière|Louise-Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, duchesse de La Vallière]].{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}}
[[File:Charles Perrault02.jpg|thumb|245px|right|upright|Perrault in an early 19th-century engraved frontispiece<ref>The engraving is derived at more than one remove from the [[:File:Charles Perrault04.jpg|portrait of 1671, now at the Musée de Versailles]], by an unknown artist.</ref>]]

At Colbert's instigation, Perrault was elected to the [[Académie française]] in 1671.<ref name=Michel1996/>

He married Marie Guichon, who was aged 19, in 1672. She died in 1678.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Betts |first1=Christopher |title=The Complete Fairy Tales |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford World's Classics |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-958580-9 |page=xlix |edition=1st |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-complete-fairy-tales-9780199585809?cc=gb&lang=en& |access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref>

In 1669 Perrault advised Louis XIV to include thirty-nine fountains each representing one of the [[Aesop's Fables|fables of Aesop]] in [[the labyrinth of Versailles]] in [[Gardens of Versailles|the gardens of Versailles]]. The work was carried out between 1672 and 1677. Water jets spurting from the animals' mouths were conceived to give the impression of speech between the creatures. There was a plaque with a caption and a quatrain written by the poet [[Isaac de Benserade]] next to each fountain. Perrault produced the guidebook for the labyrinth, ''Labyrinte de Versailles'', printed at the royal press, Paris, in 1677, and illustrated by Sebastien le Clerc.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k108017c.r=Labyrinte+de+Versailles+Perrault.langEN |title=scan of the book at the Bibliothèque nationale de France |publisher=Gallica.bnf.fr |date=15 October 2007 |access-date=24 March 2014}}</ref>

[[Philippe Quinault]], a longtime family friend of the Perraults, quickly gained a reputation as the librettist for the new musical genre known as opera, collaborating with composer [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]]. After ''[[Alceste (Lully)|Alceste]]'' (1674) was denounced by traditionalists who rejected it for deviating from classical theater, Perrault wrote in response ''Critique de l'Opéra'' (1674), in which he praised the merits of ''Alceste'' over the [[Alcestis (play)|tragedy of the same name]] by [[Euripides]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alceste suivi de La Querelle d'Alceste|last=Quinault|first=Philippe|publisher=Droz|year=1994|isbn=2600000534|editor-last=Brooks|editor-first=William|location=Geneva|editor-last2=Norman|editor-first2=Buford|editor-last3=Zarucchi|editor-first3=Jeanne Morgan}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}

This treatise on ''Alceste'' initiated the [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns]] (''Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes''), which pitted supporters of the literature of [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] (the "Ancients") against supporters of the literature from the century of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] (the "Moderns"). He was on the side of the Moderns and wrote ''Le Siècle de Louis le Grand'' (''The Century of Louis the Great'', 1687) and ''Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes'' (''Parallel between Ancients and Moderns'', 1688–1692) where he attempted to prove the superiority of the literature of his century. ''Le Siècle de Louis le Grand'' was written in celebration of Louis XIV's recovery from a life-threatening operation. Perrault argued that because of Louis's enlightened rule, the present age was superior in every respect to ancient times. He also claimed that even modern French literature was superior to the works of antiquity, and that, after all, {{linktext|even Homer nods}}.{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}}

In 1682, Colbert forced Perrault into retirement at the age of 56, assigning his tasks to his own son, Jules-Armand, marquis d'Ormoy. Colbert would die the next year, and Perrault stopped receiving the pension given to him as a writer. Colbert's bitter rival succeeded him, [[François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois]], and quickly removed Perrault from his other appointments.{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}}

After this, in 1686, Perrault decided to write [[epic poetry]] and show his genuine devotion to Christianity, writing ''Saint Paulin, évêque de Nôle'' (''St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola'', about [[Paulinus of Nola]]). Just like [[Jean Chapelain]]'s ''La Pucelle, ou la France délivrée'', an epic poem about [[Joan of Arc]], Perrault became a target of mockery from [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux]].{{Citation needed|date = January 2017}}

Charles Perrault died in Paris on 16 May 1703, at the age of 75.<ref name=Michel1996/> On 12 January 2016, Google honoured him with a [[Google Doodle|doodle]] by artist [[Sophie Diao]] depicting characters from the ''[[Tales of Mother Goose]]'' (''Histoires ou contes du temps passé'').<ref>{{cite web |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/charles-perraults-388th-birthday/ |title=Charles Perrault's 388th Birthday |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=12 January 2016 |website=Google Doodle |publisher=Google Inc. |access-date=12 January 2016}}</ref>