Italian to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting History of Art

The exact phrase is from a dedication (a vote of thanks, really) in a piece of academic writing:

"Grazie a _________, cui devo l’avermi riconciliato con gli studi sulle tecniche e le pratiche organizzative e esecutive della pittura antica. "

Now, I'm pretty convinced that this is not simply "ancient painting" in the sense of the painting of Ancient Rome/ Ancient Greece etc. and that in general, "arte antica" is used for much more recent art than we would normally call "ancient" ... see for example the artists covered in this publisher's range of titles on "arte antica":

http://www.skira.net/en/category/arte-antica

or, indeed, the period covered by the Galleria d'Arte Antica in Rome. Really it's almost defined in contrast to "arte moderna" ... really right up through the Renaissance and the Baroque and perhaps a little beyond.

So the question is really, is there a way of expressing this in English without going into a long definition?

Any suggestions welcome.