The book “From the Ancient World to the Renaissance” combines three volumes of the “Bridge Over the Abyss” series - the legendary series of lectures by Paola Volkova, broadcast on the Kultura TV channel and later revised and published by AST. Paola believed that all world art, be it ancient or modern - from Stonehenge to the Globe Theatre, from Crete to Spanish bullfighting, from Giotto to Pablo Picasso, from the European Mediterranean to twentieth-century conceptualism - is interconnected and cannot exist without each other. Paola Dmitrievna Volkova is a Soviet and Russian art critic, doctor of art history, cultural historian, Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Graduated from Moscow State University (1953) with a degree in art historian. She taught at VGIK at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. Paola Volkova is the author and presenter of the documentary television series “Bridge over the Abyss” (2011–2012) about the history of world painting for the TV channel “Culture”.