Editing Palais Garnier (section)

===Model===
[[File:Palais Garnier model by Villeminot - Mead 1991 p150.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Villeminot model (May 1863)]]

The emperor expressed an interest in seeing a model of the building, and a plaster scale model (2&nbsp;cm per meter) was constructed by Louis Villeminot between April 1862 and April 1863 at a cost of more than 8,000 francs. After previewing it, the emperor requested several changes to the design of the building, the most important of which was the suppression of a balustraded terrace with corner groups at the top of the façade and its replacement with a massive attic story fronted by a continuous frieze surmounted by imperial ''[[quadriga]]e'' over the end bays.<ref name=Model>Mead 1991, pp. 149–151.</ref>

With the incorporated changes, the model was transported over specially installed rails to the [[Palais de l'Industrie]] for public display at the 1863 exhibition. [[Théophile Gautier]] wrote of the model (''Le Moniteur Universel'', 13 May 1863) that "the general arrangement becomes intelligible to all eyes and already acquires a sort of reality that better permits one to prejudge the final effect ... it attracts the crowd's curiosity; it is, in effect, the new Opéra seen through reversed opera glasses."<ref>Mead 1991, p. 303.</ref> The model is now lost, but it was photographed by J. B. Donas in 1863.<ref name=Model/>

The emperor's quadrigae were never added, although they can be seen in the model. Instead [[Charles Gumery|Charles-Alphonse Guméry's]] gilded bronze sculptural groups ''Harmony'' and ''Poetry'' were installed in 1869.  The linear frieze seen in the model was also redesigned with alternating low- and high-relief decorative medallions bearing the gilded letters from the imperial monogram ("N" for Napoléon, "E" for Empereur). The custom-designed letters were not ready in time for the unveiling and were replaced with commercially available substitutes. After the fall of the empire in 1870, Garnier was relieved to be able to remove them from the medallions. Letters in Garnier's original design were finally installed during the restoration of the building in 2000.<ref>Fontaine 2000, pp. 91–92.</ref>