02-09-2026, 04:51 PM
Some of the drawings in the foldout Rosettes that are hardest to interpret are those walls extending downwards, the houses stacked as if on a cliff, the tower whose base is not visible...These drawings, and a few others, lie outside the circle enclosing the castle and its circular wall.
If the castle circle represents the sphere of the Earth—as I believe it does, given its connection to the T-O map in the upper right corner—then the drawings outside the circle appear to be a mere whim of the author.
But I believe it is a deliberate whim—an attempt to represent, on a flat plane, the three-dimensionality of the Earth floating in space. By drawing those houses over the abyss or that tower without a base, the artist achieves a vertical profile that suggests there is nothing below. This creates the sensation that everything is suspended in space.
If the castle circle represents the sphere of the Earth—as I believe it does, given its connection to the T-O map in the upper right corner—then the drawings outside the circle appear to be a mere whim of the author.
But I believe it is a deliberate whim—an attempt to represent, on a flat plane, the three-dimensionality of the Earth floating in space. By drawing those houses over the abyss or that tower without a base, the artist achieves a vertical profile that suggests there is nothing below. This creates the sensation that everything is suspended in space.