The St Petersburg Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts (part of Mukhina Art College) has an amazing collection of Russian Dolls, porcelain, furniture and tiled stoves, while each hall is in a different style — Renaissance, Baroque, Flemish and medieval Russian. The Medici hall accommodates the copy of frieze of Pergamum Altar(original of the Pergamum museum in Berlin) which features relief carvings of the fight between gods and giants depicted with an extraordinary sense of movement and dramatic tension.
The Mukhina Art College has been Russia’s leading school of applied art since it was founded by the philanthropist banker Baron Stieglitz in 1876. Stieglitz believed in inspiring students by surrounding them with fine art and design, and donated his own collection of tapestries, glassware, furniture, and paintings, as did his son. After the Revolution, the best was taken for the Hermitage (but still many interesting items are on display) and the Stieglitzes were cast as feudal exploiters.