The trophies of Sculpture and Architecture, it should be added, are accompanied by appropriate names--comprising those of cities, statues, and buildings--inscribed both in the arabesques and in the pendentives of certain of the domes. For Architecture, the buildings commemorated are the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon, and the Pyramids; while the cities are those with whose fame these four great monuments are connected--Rome, Agra, Athens, and Gizeh. The sculptures are the Farnese Bull, the Laocoön, the Niobe, and the Parthenon Pediment, and in the bordering arabesques are the names of the four divinities often taken as the subject of ancient statuary--Venus, Apollo, Hercules, and Zeus. =Mr. Van Ingen’s Paintings.=--In the centre of the passage a marble staircase, dividing to the right and left at a landing halfway up, leads to the gallery of the Reading Room. Beneath, on either side, is a little bay, giving access to the elevators. In the decoration of the ceiling the effect aimed at is that of an arbor, with a vine, climbing over a trellis, painted against a sunny yellow background. Each contains a small tympanum, in which Mr. Van Ingen has suggested the subjects of Milton’s well-known companion poems, _L’Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_--Mirth, and Melancholy or Thoughtfulness. The decorations are not illustrations, as the word is usually understood, like some of Mr. Walker’s panels, already described; they have no reference to any particular scene or incident in the poems, but are intended as an interpretation of their general spirit and meaning. In the first, _Il Penseroso_, the time of year is autumn; in the other it is spring. Similarly, in _L’Allegro_ the landscape is shown in morning light, while in _Il Penseroso_ the time is evening. The latter panel is in the bay to the north of the staircase. A single figure, that of a beautiful woman with dark hair and soft, pensive eyes, is shown at half length, leaning her head upon her hand in an attitude and with an expression of deep contemplation. _L’Allegro_ is represented by a young woman, light-haired and sparkling with laughter, who is playing under the trees with two little children. In the pendentives of the bays are inscribed portions of the two poems illustrated. The lines from _L’Allegro_ are as follows:-- ... Come, thou Goddess fair and free, In heaven yclept Euphrosyne, And by men heart-easing Mirth; * * * * * Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful Jollity, Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, Nods and becks and wreathèd smiles, Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek. The lines from _Il Penseroso_ are:-- Hail! thou Goddess, sage and holy! Hail, divinest Melancholy! * * * * *