BUTTERFLIES

Among the cornucopia of the British Museum King’s Library galleries, suggesting the range of exhibits in the original museum at Montague House, are these butterflies, above. I love the strong forms of their vivid markings, but it’s their display with Egyptian carvings, minerals, and exotica like Elizabethan magus John Dee’s scrying tablet, that gives them added magic. A similarly rich collection is the wonderful Galleria Estense in Modena, the fragmentary remains of the great Ferrara Este family’s treasures. Among them are some exquisite, 17thC floral still-life watercolours on vellum in the style of Giovanna Garzoni; details, below, show superb trompe l’oeil insects roaming the petals of fat roses and peonies.

In Nottingham to see the great Elizabethan trophy house, Wollaton Hall, I found that its upstairs rooms hold a Natural History Museum with cases of spectacular butterflies, beautifully displayed with old typed labels pinned on. Many were collected in what were far corners of the Empire – Assam, Australia, etc – which gives me a politically incorrect feeling of romantic nostalgia. They’re hugely inspiring designs, with their simple, strong colours and bold or subtle markings: camouflage, really, as eyes and fur or flowers.