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.

A body of a victim lies trapped in the debris after an earthquake hit, in Kathmandu, Nepal April 25, 2015. Rescue efforts in Nepal are intensifying after nearly 2,000 people were killed on Saturday in the worst earthquake there in more than 80 years. Many countries and charities have offered aid to deal with the disaster. Seventeen people have been killed on Mount Everest by avalanches – the mountain's worst-ever disaster. Meanwhile a powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Nguyen Thi Vui paddles her boat in the flooded streets of Hoi An, Vietnam, Monday, November 6, 2017. A powerful typhoon that rocked Vietnam has killed dozens of people and caused extensive damage to the country's south-central region ahead of the APEC summit that will draw leaders from around the world, the government said Monday. (Photo by Hau Dinh/AP Photo)

A passenger (L) gets inside a decorated matatu as other passengers wait for it to fill at night in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, 24 March 2018. The Matatu culture is very big in Kenya, the minibuses are decorated with colorful graffiti inside and outside and most of them are equipped with TV screens, high-speed internet, and power sockets. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA/EFE)

Emergency workers save a shepherd dog from a beach during a forest fire on August 2, 2021 in Mugla, a Marmaris' district, as Turkey struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades. A roaring blaze raced toward a Turkish thermal power plant and farmers herded panicked cattle toward the sea as wildfires that have killed eight people raged on for a seventh day. The nation of 84 million has been transfixed in horror as the most destructive wildfires in generations erase pristine forests and rich farmland across swaths of Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A woman mourns the loss of her husband, next to a placard which reads “I'm a pusher”, who was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Manila on July 23, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power in May on a promise to clampdown on drugs, and police have since confirmed killing nearly 200 people in a two-month crime blitz. There has also been a surge in killings by anti-drug vigilantes who leave victims' corpses on city streets wrapped in packaging tape with signs accusing them of being drug dealers. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

A protester spits fire during a protest to mark the second anniversary of months of civil unrising against social inequality, in Santiago, on October 18, 2021. The social-justice protests that rocked Chile in October 2019 led ultimately to the decision to create a new constitutional convention to draft a constitution to replace the one written during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The new 155-member the new body is in charge of writing a new constitution meant to pry power from the hands of the elite and spread it more equitably in the South American nation. (Photo by Martin Bernetti/AFP Photo)

In this February 27, 1984, file photo, singer Placido Domingo laughs with members of the Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The singer and dancers met while rehearsing for Channel Thirteen's “Gala of Stars 1984”. Nine women in the opera world have told The Associated Press that they were sexually harassed by Domingo, one of the most celebrated and powerful men in opera. The women say the encounters took place over three decades, at venues that included opera companies where he held top managerial positions. (Photo by Steve Friedman/AP Photo/File)