The Grand Foyer comprised the largest and most complex decorative program in the Opéra’s interior. Like the rest of the Opéra, it is Garnier’s personal synthesis of all past styles. The walls are alive with gleaming, gold ornamental sculpture and the flat ceiling contains a large, rectangular panel flanked by oval panels at each end. These are surrounded by a cove containing twenty irregularly shaped panels, nine on the sides and one on each end. On the walls beneath, above each of the ten doorways, are painted oval medallions personifying the music of various countries and ethnic groups. Atop each of the twenty columns between the ten doors, separating the medallions, are sculptured figures personifying The Qualities Required by Artists. The foyer was the most prominent gathering place for promenading spectators during intermissions. Garnier entrusted the paintings to his old friend from the Villa Medici, Paul Baudry.