Mastery in disguise

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Some of the most impressive people you'll ever meet make difficult things look easy.

Speaking of such people, it's time now for George Grant, who says there's actually a name for this effortless-seeming skill. 

Here is Wordplay for the month of June.

GEORGE GRANT: There ought to be a word for that. At least, that is what I thought when I first encountered the ancient Roman poet Ovid's aesthetic principle of studied nonchalance.

He called it, “The art that conceals art.” He believed that the highest form of craft or skill is one that appears altogether effortless and unstudied, hiding its technical labor.

Have you ever watched someone who makes even the most difficult of tasks look easy? 

Have you ever seen a carpenter or a mechanic or a plumber or an electrician use his tools as if they were a natural extensions of his hands? Have you ever watched the uncanny grace and dexterity of a gifted athlete making even the most arduous challenges look simple? Have you ever read a writer whose lucid, sophisticated prose completely recedes into the background allowing you to become immersed in the plot, the characters, and the setting of their story? Have you ever been transported by a musician’s deft touch and virtuosity? Have you ever witnessed an effective coach or a savvy leader unobtrusively mentor, encouraging his or her team to feel as if they had accomplished their goals all by themselves? 

It's as if their proficiency, competence, and know-how are somehow innate.

It is that elegance that never looks like it's trying to be elegant. It is labor that never looks laborious. It is the actor’s immersive believability. It is the sort of mastery that modestly allows the work to speak for itself. It is quiet expertise. It is that refined, polished technique where the touch of a craftsman’s hand is altogether uncontrived and very nearly invisible.

Technical precision and hard work remain backstage allowing beauty, goodness, and truth to take the spotlight. 

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde declared that art is most revealing when the artist is most concealing.

There ought to be a word for that—and there is ... except that it's in Italian. 

In his Book of the Courtier, the Italian Renaissance diplomat and military officer Baldassare Castiglione coined the term "sprezzatura" to describe this idea. It was, he said, a certain nonchalance to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without even the slightest effort—making difficult actions, behaviors, or styles appear simple and unstudied.

Alas, sprezzatura doesn’t exactly slip off the American tongue effortlessly, or easily, or unostentatiously. 

So, I’ll say it again: there ought to be a word for that...

I’m George Grant.

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