"I have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me valid above all other... to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance], so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it."
— Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528)
Sprezzatura!
'Tis a fun little term.
Kind of like when someone in your class uses a really sophisticated word (so sophisticated that you have to secretly look it up after), but not in an arrogant or "look-at-me-I'm-so-smart" kind of way. And definitely not in a "I'll-just-use-a-really-big-word-here-and-hope-no-one-asks-me-to-elaborate" kind of way.
Instead, it just flows naturally off their tongue into the rest of the conversation.
It's when you can be 100% sure the person actually knows what they're saying and isn't just speaking for the sake of sounding learned. It's an easygoing kind of speech that's based on a strong foundation of true understanding and intellect.
This is Sprezzatura! To be effortlessly authentic, and as a result, admirable. Something I hope to one day achieve.
But alas, Sprezzatura! is not always authentic and may undoubtedly entail deception in those "fake it 'til you make it" situations. Though... faking it 'til you make it is honestly quite a difficult feat. Sprezzatura would be easiest when you actually have the ability to back it up, so that the now-effortless thoughtfulness is actually predated by a whole lotta effort that's been masked by time and practice.
Perhaps it's the idea of this pre-dedicated effort that makes Sprezzatura! so attractive to me. The idea that one must have put in so much work beforehand to appear so effortless. To reach the master status. But it's not the master status itself that actually impresses you. It's the time you know must have had been put in to achieve it. The work ethic and challenges that have been overcome, that now make this individual worthy of expressing a true Sprezzatura!
And even if the Sprezzatura! turns out to be non-authentic, I'd still have to give it to them! It takes a whole lotta skill to be able to pull this type of effortlessness off. 😉
Comments