Lucio Massari | Madonna of the Laundry, 1620

"Mary washed, Joseph laid... "

The subject of this painting really seems to illustrate the famous lullaby your grandparents or parents used to sing to you when you were a child.

You know, no one can escape household affairs, not even Joseph, Mary and Jesus!

The scene depicted by the Bolognese painter Lucio Massari (1568-1633) is in fact very unusual: every member of the Sacraiglia works with commitment and organization to clean and iron the laundry.

Lucio Massari Holy Family (Madonna of the Laundry), 1620 | Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Pablo Picasso | My Love has withered away / Il mio amore è appassito..

I have walked through starless nights not caring what the world cared for

Amidst sighs of desperation and exasperation, i 'ave walked; only for you

you were always like the fresh mist of dawn

Yet, like the honey of the bee.

Pablo Picasso | The Meeting / The-Embrace, -1900 | Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia

Alison Friend, 1973

Alison Friend is a British artist, born in Doncaster, South Yorks.

Her paintings are inspired by nature and her cheeky sense of humour.

Dreamy delicate brush strokes abound every canvas where she captures the secret lives of animals. Every character comes to life on canvas whether having a lolly or a gin.

Alison Friend graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art specialising in Printmaking.

Jane Graverol | Surrealist painter

Jane Graverol (1905-1984) was a Belgian surrealist painter of French extraction.

Life

Jane Graverol was born in Ixelles on 18 December 1905 to Alexandre Graverol and Anne-Marie Lagadec.

After a traditional education, she enrolled in the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1921, where she was taught by Jean Delville and Constant Montald.

Reinaldo Arenas | My Lover The Sea / Io sono quel bambino....

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca,

che in ogni angolo ti infastidisce

con il suo "mi dai una monetina"?

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca, certamente non voluto, che da lontano

contempla gli autobus, in cui gli altri bambini ridono

forte, e fanno salti molto grandi.

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky | At the Door of the School | The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg