Sprezzatura

The events that repeatedly leave us in awe are ones that are acts of god: lightning in the sky, floods, sunsets, and vast views. There is a certain type of gracefulness they embody.

In 1528, Baldassare Castiglione captured this principle in his book The Book of the Courtier. He called it Sprezzatura, which is the capacity to make difficult things easy. The artist of the Renaissance kept their work hidden from the world as they created it. The principle of sprezzatura gave each piece a magical effect—presenting a sense of ease and beauty, all of the effort that went into their creation was hidden from the world. This is what magic is: created from hours of work to perfect the sleight of hand needed for it to appear effortless and evoke awe.