Visitors to Turin can marvel at the arts of ancient Egypt's superwomen in a show at the city's famed Egyptology Museum.
The exhibition shows why ancient Egypt's women were far ahead of their contemporaries.
"Priestess, empress, seducer and mother, the Egyptian woman combined roles like no other - and enjoyed higher status than any woman until recent times," organisers said.
This was true not just of famous figures like Cleopatra, Nefertari, wife of Rameses II, and Queen Hatshepsut who ruled alone for nearly 20 years, they said, but also of ordinary women whose love of beauty aimed to defy death.
Skin lotions, hair dyes and wigs are on display at Palazzo Reale along with the jewels Egyptian women adored.
"Usually gold, they wore them everywhere, on their arms, wrists, necks, ears, ankles," organisers said.
The show features 100 previously unseen artefacts from the vaults of the Egyptology Museum including 20 sarcophagi - about double the amount of unseen treasures compared to the show's first stop in Milan.
It has loans from Milan, Florence, Bologna, Mantua, Pavia, Como and Vienna.
In the Lombardy capital the exhibition set a winter record of 50,000 visits.
Organisers say the show "highlights how generations of Egyptian women enjoyed social, political and marital success".
"They were strong-willed and highly educated career women who knew the importance of glamour but also knew how to take care of their children," curators said.
As well as her charms and wiles, the show highlights the Egyptian woman's detailed knowledge of midwifery and childcare.
On show for the first time are papyri showing advanced gynecological knowledge and advice on all aspects of childbearing - including some of the world's first pregnancy tests.
'Nefer-Woman In Ancient Egypt', organised by Milan's DNArt Foundation in collaboration with Turin's Egyptology Museum, runs until July 10.
