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filled with paintings of episodes from U.S. naval history, including the War of 1812. We know from Meigs's jour- nals that the painter George R. West, who had been commissioned to paint these, felt unappreciated and was dissatisfied with his pay, so he quit, and his scenes were later removed. Though one was filled in with architecture and bronze trophies by Camillo Bisco, the majority of these panels remain blank to this day, so that the room's mural decoration was never fully completed. 5 The mural cycle culminates on the ceiling, where seven Graeco- Roman aquatic deities and a female personification of America oversee the maidens floating on the blue wall pan- els below. Here, Brumidi makes his main statement about America and the commit- tee room's connection to naval affairs. Each deity or personification inhabits a painted, labeled niche, centered in one of the quad- rants of the two groin vaults of the ceiling, and each is flanked by two attendants (see figs. 4–7). Gods are accompanied by various sea animals like dolphins, sea tigers, and sea horses, all with Nereids (sea nymphs) atop their backs. Goddesses are attended by Tritons (mermen), also ridden by Nere- ids, except for Venus, who is surrounded by swans. Brumidi positioned male deities around the sides of the room and created a line of powerful goddesses down the cen- ter that culminate in the personification of America (see fig. 4). The eastern vault is flanked on the north by Oceanus, primor- dial Titan god of water, and on the south by Nereus, the old man of the sea (see figs. 4 and 5). Between Oceanus and Nereus on the far eastern end of the room is Thetis, Nereus's daughter, goddess of the sea and leader of his 50 daughters, the Nereids. Opposite Thetis and at the center of the room but still between Oceanus and Nereus, Venus, born from the ocean, stands in her shell. In the other half of the room in the western vault, Aeolus, god of the winds, is in the north (see figs. 4 and 6) with Nep- tune, Olympian god of the sea, in the south (see fig. 6). At the center of the room, just to the west of Venus, Amphitrite sits atop two dolphins, facing her husband Neptune to her south and with her mantle whipped up into an arc around her by the nearby wind god Aeolus to her north. The central axis of aquatic goddesses (Thetis, Venus, and Amphitrite) is completed on the western end of the room with a female personification of America, who is seated on a rock, wearing Native American dress, leaning on a bow with her left hand, clutching arrows in her right, and accom- panied by a single dolphin. Here, Brumidi suggests that the maritime power of his new home country, in keep- ing with the Naval Affairs theme of the room, derives from a line of powerful Graeco-Roman goddesses of the sea, supported by related male marine deities. 5 THE CAPITOL DOME Fig. 6. Constantino Brumidi, view of western groin vault: (counterclockwise from lower left) Aeolus, Amphitrite, Neptune, and America, c. 1857, S-127, U.S. Capitol Fig. 5. Constantino Brumidi, view of eastern groin vault: (clockwise from upper left) Oceanus, Thetis, Nereus, and Venus, c. 1857, S-127, U.S. Capitol