Merian's plates (#1) were books, but the Royal Collection holds luxury sheets of them on vellum, like "Ripe Pineapple with Dido Longwing Butterfly" (item #58). The Trust's note says she inked parts of her etched plate and pressed vellum against it while wet, so mostly the insects transferred, and the rest was painted by hand, probably with her daughters' help. Because she moved the butterflies between copies, no two sheets share a composition.
So the life cycle on the page was rearranged each time, as a drawing is rearranged when you decide what sits beside what. Ehret did his own version (#50): drew, etched and published the sheet himself.
Try it: trace one insect from a drawing of yours three times onto a fresh plant, each time a little to the left, and see which placement tells the story best.
By Raz Rotenberg, made with AI