Tridtsat esse o putjakh i zakonomernostjakh razvitija iskusstva, posvjaschennye osnovnym figuram i epizodam evropejskoj zhivopisi, otvechajut na kljuchevye voprosy o suschnosti evropejskogo gumanizma. Fundamentalnyj trud pisatelja i khudozhnika Maksima Kantora o zhivopisi — kvintessentsii i instrumente evropejskoj gumanisticheskoj mysli.
Maxim Karlovich Kantor, is a famous Russian painter, writer, essayist and social commentator of an openly philosophical turn, and, as he once said, "one profession proceeds from the other".