In his diptych Ivan-da-Marya the artist Alexander Zolotykh has embodied his idea of the man and the woman in the Russian culture. He produced two still-life paintings of household items that, together, fall into the traditional, almost folklore images of a peasant family, of a husband and a wife, Ivan and Maria.

Zolotykh’s Maria appears to be a skillful, thrifty housewife, dotting mother, a faithful help and support to her husband. The sickle and rake are at the fore of the diptych: during the harvesting of cereals, men used the scythe while women cut the stems with sickles and raked them into stacks. The canvas also shows the purely feminine items: a spinning wheel, a washtub, a shoulder-yoke on which water buckets were carried. Laid on the table are a flour sieve and a clay jug, with a wooden spoon at the side. All of the utensils are clean and neat as should be with a good housewife. Next, on an embroidered kitchen towel, is an icon of the Mother of God who, in the Russian Orthodox tradition was considered the patron saint of women and children.

Alezander Zolotykh said that the diptych Ivan-da-Maria was his best loved work. The artist was born to a peasant family, and the settings he depicted in the two paintings were familiar from an early age.