MICROSTORY OF ART

MICROSTORY OF ART
ONLINE JOURNAL FOR ART, CONNOISSEURSHIP AND CULTURAL JOURNALISM

EDITORIAL

The Microstory of Art Online Journal’s Editorial

It had never crossed my mind that one might look at the roots of turnips, found at the bottom of a well – until I had come across this beautiful and hardly ever quoted Leonardo da Vinci note that deals, among other things, with the colors that these roots of turnips show, that one may find at the bottom of a well (be it at the times of the Italian Renaissance or at modern times, which is: at our times).
This find, the quotation as the observation, the turnip as the well, the colors as the maze of Leonardo da Vinci scholarship (it is Windsor, Anatomical Drawing No. 19150), do illustrate magnificently what this Online Journal Microstory of Art, dedicated to art, connoisseurship and cultural journalism, is all about.
Something may arouse our interest. Usually it is a detail, a partial view of something (or it is the general impression of this something). In any rate, it is about being attentive and curious, and about wanting, driven by lively curiosity, to know more about this something, that has aroused our interest. If the exploration was worth it in the end (be it for its results or for the very exploration), which is, if the exploration was successful, and if the exploration finds its literary form in a »microstory«, one might be wanting to share the results of this exploration with others. And this is what we should like to do here.
What directions might our exploration into the world of turnips, found at the bottom of Renaissance wells, take?
Well, first let us say that we are also open for digressions:
After I had been able to check the quotation, for precision’s sake, at the University Library of Basel, I went on to walk home. And while thinking about Leonardo da Vinci thinking about colors, colors in the feathers of birds, including birds »in various regions of the world«, further about colors of ancient glass, to be found underground, and about, yes, colors »on the roots of turnips kept for some time at the bottom of wells or other stagnant waters« I suddenly got distracted by a father, walking behind me, and explaining to his son, that was sitting in a buggy, the colors of cars that were parked along the University Library of Basel. »A blue Mercedes bus«, and yes, I went back to check if there was a blue Mercedes bus, and I had never seen a blue Mercedes Bus like this particular bus, which had a broken window and some tags on it, before. And now writing this down, I vividly do recall the joy in that father’s voice (I suppose it was the father), walking behind me (until I did stop and had them overtake) explaining to his son the colors of cars, and discovering, together with his son, the world anew. Let this editorial also be dedicated to this father and his son.
And back to our Leonardo da Vinci note.

The very term that Leonardo da Vinci did use was actually »ravanelli« and one may translate this also differently than with »turnips«, and in German one may be torn between translating this with »Rübe« (as it is translated by one Leonardo anthology) or »Radieschen«. This is not necessarily the direction that our exploration would go on to take. But we may dive now, inspired by this observations of Leonardo, that obviously were fed also by daily experiences like for example having to go to a Renaissance well, into the world of Leonardo’s notes dealing with color.

…in any rate something mysterious at the bottom of a something (all pictures: DS)

What would Leonardo have thought of the magnificent showcase decoration of the Spielzeug Welten Museum of Basel? What of the colors found on butterflies’ wings? What of the vitrine full of toy soldiers (including Etruscan ones), encapsulating a whole military history of the world, a vitrine that I also came across on my way home?
And by the way, I also came across about something like a well, with something mysterious at its bottom.
But let us finish at this point the Editorial of the Microstory of Art Online Journal by saying that what runs here is meant to be only a demo version of a journal that is meant to professionalize itself and to possibly migrate to a website of its own. We would like to do that, and if you feel that you would like to see this happen too, send me an email. And we could see what we could do about it.

Dietrich Seybold, August 29, 2014

Contact: D.Seybold@bluewin.ch

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