That architectural drawings are, as a matter of course, thought in terms of representation is one of the most accepted notions in the field. However, the insufficiency of this notion already appears in the first systematic theorizations of Western painting and architecture, where their author, Leon Battista Alberti, introduces something profoundly destabilizing. For not only does he use ekphrasis to eschew conventional drawing but, paradoxically, he simultaneously manages to turn mark-making into pure representation precisely when graphism is devoid of graphite, in other words, when drawing is traced on and with unusual materials yet with plenty of covert intentionality.