#81 What is Sprezzatura?

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“Effortless grace.”
“Nonchalant.”
“Debonair.”

What do these words bring to mind? Maybe James Bond, casually commandeering a sea vessel to navigate Venice’s canals during a secret mission?

In mainstream culture, Bond is the embodiment of effortless coolness. Charismatic and unaffected, Bond is habitually competent and almost always has a trick up his sleeve.

We might also think of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and other members of the Rat Pack as being associated with the cultural archetype of the endlessly charming “man about town”.

Today’s newsletter is about a related Italian concept that traces back to the Middle Ages: sprezzatura, which means “studied carelessness.”

One historian defined sprezzatura as a “facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them.”

Another writer said that it's:

The term was popularized by Baldassare Castiglione, an Italian diplomat and writer who spent much of his life in royal courts across Europe during the early 1500s.

Today, Sprezzatura has become associated with a certain kind of effortless masculine style.

But the concept originated in the world of late-medieval court culture, where the brute force of the Middle Ages met the sophistication of the Renaissance.

Castiglione saw sprezzatura as the ideal virtue of the courtier, a name used for the men and women who attended to kings and queens and served as part of an extended network of aristocrats and elites centered around the court.

Castiglione himself embodied the life of the well-cultured and worldly courtier.

After his death in 1529, a memorial of him was written:

The culture of the late medieval and early Renaissance court was fascinating.

It was a time of massive technological, religious, social, and political change.

Royal families would try to impress visiting foreign dignitaries with the finest food and entertainment, along with displays of cultural sophistication.

For non-royals who aspired to positions of power and prominence, navigating the court culture was a major challenge.

Imagine: You’re a French diplomat visiting Venice. During the feast thrown in your honor, a medieval band may perform music. After much food and the finest wine available in the region, one of the court scholars might lecture on the latest interpretations of Aristotle’s philosophy.

To be an successful courtier, you had to be a multi-faceted individual. To display sprezzatura was to show the world that your many abilities and talents come naturally to you.

Castiglione said:

A courtier could be a knight with combat experience and an impressive record as a jouster.

He would also need to be well-versed in the period’s literary and cultural traditions, and to be tactful and diplomatic in his dealings with powerful people from around Europe.

Some scholars claim that the notion of sprezzurata has a negative component.

Howard Wescott argued that sprezzurata is actually “the art of acting devious.”

You could say that it's the person who is very self-consciously trying to look nonchalant.

Those who mastered sprezzurta, he argued, would fall into a “self-fulfilling culture of suspicion” where one cannot even trust themselves because they are so used to wearing a mask in their dealings with others.

As a result, excessive sprezzurata could lead one to lose themselves to the façade they present to the outside world.

These insights provide us with some interesting food for thought in the 21st century, when people are hyper-conscious of how they present themselves to others on social media.

ART OF THE DAY

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Yours,
Dan