This splendid gallery is a reproduction of Raphael's celebrated Loggias, erected in the Vatican Palace and painted by Raphael and his pupils. The Hermitage copy of the Vatican frescoes was produced in tempera by a group of artists under Cristopher Unterberger. The vaults of the gallery are decorated with paintings based upon Biblical stories. The walls are covered with human and animal forms interwoven with flowers and foliage. Such decorative ornamentation was found in the ruins of Nero's Golden House and was called grotesques. The Raphael Loggias in the Hermitage reveal the links of 18th-century Classicism with Renaissance and Classical art.