15: Study with Paintings

This room is situated symmetrically with the Walnut Study the original decor of which was recreated in the 1990s. The walls are lined with blue cloth above and shaped oak panels below. The ceiling bears a copy on canvas of the first layer of painting in the Walnut Study, with elements of reconstruction, featuring Mars in the centre and allegorical subjects in the corners.
A rare piece of furniture is the 17th-century North European cabinet with painted insets executed on marble. The base is decorated with Italian majolica vases from the turn of the 18th century. The paintings that in accordance with the early-18th-century fashion form a symmetrical decorative composition give some idea of the collection assembled by Menshikov that is now known only from documents. By 1727 the collection numbered more than 140 canvases.