Tuesday, April 1, 2008

That's Sprezzatura

A true aristocrat, Castiglione insisted, should preserve one's composure in all circumstances, and behave with unaffected nonchalance and effortless dignity. Such nonchalance he called sprezzatura:

It is an art which does not seem to be an art. One must avoid affectation and practice in all things a certain sprezzatura, disdain or carelessness, so as to conceal art, and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.