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Half height banner for Maria Merian exhibition, showing a butterfly
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MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)

Papaya plant with Nymphidium butterfly

1702-03

RCIN 921197

Merian noted that the Papaya could be eaten cooked or raw and that the hollow plant stalks were used as rain gutters in Surinamese buildings. This is one of the few 'Metamorphosis' illustrations in the Royal Collection without printed lines, suggesting that Merian had not started work on this plate by the time she made the set.

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