Italian pencil artist Marco Mazzoni‘s work goes far beyond technical perfection. His representation of historical healing women is enigmatic and sublime. Often leaving the eyes blank or covered with an abundance of birds, butterflies and flowers, he gives the impression of a deeper inward focused sight, as well as obscuring the identity of the individual. Many female healers in the past – both medicine woman and midwives – were brutally persecuted by religion, some even burnt as witches… Mazzoni’s work captures their deep connection with nature and their innate power and femininity with delicacy and beautiful detail.

The pictures were taken by photographer Jorge Farfan and reveal the spiders’ bright colours. The 33-year-old captured the jumping, wolf, and lycosa spiders in a riverside field near his home in La Coruna, Spain. (Photo by Jorge Fardels/Solent News/SIPA Press)

Meet the star students of orangutan school – the unique rehab centre where orphaned apes are taught how to climb trees and survive in the wild without their mum and dad. (Photo by Caters News)

A cat wears a “Tsunagaru Col” gadget next to a smart phone displaying the connected app, at the Anicall Corp booth during the Wearable Device Technology Expo in Tokyo January 14, 2015. The gadget (“Tsunagaru” means connection) for animals tracks information about pets, such as the location and other animals the pet might be interacting with, with the purpose of providing “social networking” for animals. The expo runs until January 16 as a part of Japan's largest electronic exhibition expected to attract around 77,000 visitors, according to organisers. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

A camel is pictured in front of the Saturn tracking complex at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 9, 2018. An astronaut and cosmonaut are due to travel to the ISS on October 11 aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

A pod of white pelicans, one of the largest birds in Canada and the US, are seen on the shore of the Chapala lagoon in Cojumatlan de Regules, Mexico, on January 28, 2022. White pelicans travel thousands of kilometers migrating from the cold temperatures of North America. (Photo by Ulises Ruiz/AFP Photo)

Giraffes doing the splits to get a drink of water from the watering hole at the Zimanga Private Game Reserve in South Africa on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Hendri Venter/Animal News Agency)

It looks like a kiss but this male and female blackbird were fighting in flight in Charlton Adam, Somerset, South West England in July 2022. (Photo by Ben Pulletz/Solent News)