The exhibition currently at the Palazzo Bricherasio in Turin, Le tre vite del Papiro di Artemidoro: Voci e sguardi dall’Egitto greco-romano, is proving to be a remarkable cultural eye-opener. It centres on a new papyrus from Greco-Roman Egypt. The excitement this time is generated not by some luckily preserved fragment of lost literature (though this papyrus has that too, with a page or two of previously unknown Greek). It comes instead from a startling series of ancient sketches which promises to go some way towards bridging the frustrating gap between the extravagant enthusiasm of Greek and Latin writers for the masterpieces of ancient painting, and the generally unimpressive specimens that we can actually see.
more from the TLS here.