Maria Sibylla Merian self-funded a two-year expedition to the Dutch colony of Surinam in 1699, an extraordinary undertaking for any 17th-century naturalist and a genuinely radical one for a woman working without institutional backing, to document the insect life of the South American tropics through direct field observation rather than secondhand report. This plate, from the resulting Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), shows a pink-toed tarantula looming over a hummingbird carcass while leafcutter ants march up a branch in strict formation — a scene European naturalists dismissed as fantastical exaggeration for over two centuries, since large spiders preying on birds seemed obviously impossible. Field biologists have since confirmed several tropical tarantula species do occasionally take small vertebrates. What to notice: Merian drew every stage of a creature's life cycle in a single composition whenever she could — this plate compresses predation, colony behavior, and web architecture into one continuous scene, decades before ecology existed as a discipline.

Maker: Maria Sibylla Merian
Date: 1705
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00290

As chosen: 8 x 10 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	8 x 10 in
Outside size	9.6 x 11.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	169	Good	Trimmed 4.8%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
11 x 14 in	123 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 16 in	111 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
16 x 20 in	84 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
18 x 24 in	74 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
24 x 30 in	56 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
30 x 40 in	44 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	37 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop