Mazzuchelli’s architectural style clearly reflects Asterios’ identity as an architect. However, in doing this, Mazzuchelli renders each and every page, and subsequent panel, a metapicture.
In class on Wednesday, you may recall the page where Asterios literally sits, abstractly, on the drawings of his architectural sketches or the panel of the foregrounded Asterios sketched ‘architecturally’, creating a powerful transition to the ‘crosshatching’ used to display one of Asterios’ female lovers in the background.
In illustrating like this, Mazzuchelli draws our attention to the art as art, suspending our expected suspension of disbelief and ultimately stretching the fluidity of the term ‘architecture’ to encompass the book itself.
