sprezzatura, the art that hides its art

Sprezzatura refers to the art that hides its art, as opposed to the disclosure of “intent effort.” It relates to design and to rhetoric.

The expression comes from Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (published in Venice, 1528). This was an age of texts and handbooks, and new needs to learn new skills (e.g., calligraphy). Texts proliferated, language being an important tool of self fashioning. Yet artifice needed to be made seem natural.

Here is the key passage on sprezzatura, from the translation by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561)—

...He therfore that wil be a good scolar, beside the practysing of good thinges, must evermore set al his diligence to bee lyke his mayster, and (if it were possible) chaunge himself into him. And when he hath had some entrey, it profiteth hym much to behould sondrye men of that profession: and governing hymselfe with that good judgement that must alwayes be hys guyde, go about to pyke out, sometyme of one and sometyme of an other, sundry matters. And even as the bee in the greene medowes fleeth alwayes aboute the grasse chousynge out flowres: so shall our Courtyer steale thys grace from them that to hys seming have it, and from ech one that percell that shal be most worthy praise. And not do, as a frende of ours, whom you al know, that thought he resembled much kyng Ferdinande the yonger of Aragon, and regarded not to resemble hym in anye other poynt but in the often lyftyng up hys head, wrying therewythall a part of hys mouth, the whych custome the king had gotten by infyrmitye. And manye such there are that thynke they doe much, so they resemble a great man in somewhat, and take many tymes the thynge in hym that woorst becommeth hym. But I, imagynyng with my self oftentymes how this grace commeth, leaving a part such as have it from above, fynd one rule that is most general whych in thys part (me thynk) taketh place in all thynges belongyng to man in worde or deede above all other. And that is to eschew as much as a man may, and as a sharp and dangerous rock, Affectation or curiousity and (to speak a new word) to use in every thyng a certain Reckelessness, to cover art withall, and seeme whatsoever he doth and sayeth to do it wythout pain, and (as it were) not myndyng it. And of thys do I beleve grace is muche deryved, for in rare matters and wel brought to passe every man knoweth the hardnes of them, so that a redines therin maketh great wonder. And contrarywise to use force, and (as they say) to hale by the hear, geveth a great disgrace, and maketh every thing how great so ever it be, to be litle estemed. Therfore that may be said to be a very art that appeereth not to be art, neyther ought a man to put more dilgence in any thing then in covering it: for in case it be open, it loseth credit cleane, and maketh a man litle set by. And I remember that I have reade in my dayes, that there were some excellent Oratours, which among other their cares, enforced themselves to make every man beleve that they had no sight in letters, and dissemblinge their conning, made semblant their orations to be made very simply, and rather as nature and trueth lead them, then study and arte, the whiche if it had bene openly knowen, would have putte a doubte in the peoples minde for feare least he beguiled them. You may see then how howe to shewe arte and suche bent study taketh away the grace of every thing. Which of you is it that laugheth not whan our M. Peterpaul daunseth after his owne facion with such fine skippes and on tipto without moving his head, as though he were all of wood, so heedfullie, that truely a man would weene he counted his paces? What eye is so blind that perceiveth not in this disgrace of curiosity, and in many men and women here present the grace of that not regarded agylitie and slighte conveyaunce (for in the mocions of the bodye manye so terme it) with a kinde of speaking or smiling, or gesture, betokening not to passe upon it, and to minde anye other thinge more then that, to make him beleve that loketh on that he can not do amisse?

The full translation is provided here. In class, we read the same excerpt from the translation by Charles S. Singleton (Anchor, 1959).

The idea of sprezzatura can be used to explain the virtue (vertu) of both performer and inanimate object. Designed objects frequently hide the sophisticated engineering within, and to the degree they succeed in doing this, turn that object into an instance of magic.

Graphic (and other) design is, in some sense and at least partly, a performance art. We perform, phrase, frame other people's content, like a pianist might. The conservatory may be a better educational model than the art atelier. The degree to which we make it look easy, enhances our prestige by indirectly suggesting the miracles we could perform, if we were really trying.

An exercise was assigned, due Wednesday 27 February :

Develop a visual exploration of or comment on the ideas embodied in or suggested by the expression sprezzatura, taking care to link it to design. Poster or other format; if book-sized pages, please prepare copies for distribution to members of the class.

printing, transparency, dialogue

This week's readings include Meggs's chapters 5 and 6, "Printing comes to Europe" and "The German Illustrated Book," and Beatrice Warde her essay The Crystal Goblet, or printing should be invisible. Address to the Society of Typographic Designers, formerly the British Typographers Guild, London, 1932. Reprinted in Looking Closer 3, Critical Writings on Graphic Design (1999), but available also here.

This fragment — ...an immaculate surface that leaves no room for dialogue... — from Robin Kinross, on the "modern", in Fellow Readers (1994), will likely turn up in our discussion of this material.

Our very quick survey of the Meggs material concluded with a presentation on emblems and emblem books, whose heyday was the 16th and 17th centuries, but which still appear explicitly (as a form of art) and implicitly (in the three-part design of book covers and advertising).

We detoured into a discussion about blindness, deafblindness, and various adaptive technologies, including braille and tactile letterforms, maps, diagrams and even pictures. "Transparency" becomes an interesting metaphor in this context. The links at right, to Brainport and to the historical museum at Perkins, are worth exploring, and will be supplemented by more in due course.

writing, alphabets, graphic systems. externalization of memory

Our readings last week were two passages from the Phaedrus — Rhetoric, actual and ideal (266d-274) and The inferiority of the written to the spoken word (274-279) — and Meggs's chapters 1 and 2, "The Invention of Writing" and "Alphabets."

The major portion of the Phaedrus is about love and the soul; the second part is more clearly devoted to rhetoric (and writing). Crudely stated, the connection of love to the soul is that love encourages the regrowth of the wings of the soul, and a release from lower forms. Resort is made to allegory to explain the mechanisms of the soul. Memory plays a crucial role, in a process of successive incarnations: It is impossible for a soul that has never seen the truth to enter into our human shape; it takes a man to understand by the use of universals, and to collect out of the multiplicity of sense-impressions a unity arrived at by a process of reason. Such a process is simply the recollection of the things which our soul once perceived when it took its journey with a god... That is why it is right that the soul of the philosopher alone should regain its wings; for it is always dwelling in memory as best it may upon those things which a god owes his divinity to dwelling upon. It is only by the right use of such aids to recollection... that a man can become perfect..." (249)

It is assumed here that graphic design is a rhetorical activity, one that involves framing information, giving things a "look," helping guide people to what they need. By focusing on some aspects of a situation, we necessarily "de-focus" others. I am put in mind of Ranganathan's APUPA pattern for presenting new bibliographic records : Umbral (materials directly relating to inquiry), between Penumbral (decreasing filiation) which shade into Alien (thought with little filiation with subject at hand). The graphic designer — like the artist, orator, author — manages attention.

The fact is, Phaedrus, that writing involves a similar disadvantage to painting. The productions of painting look like living beings, but if you ask them a question they maintain a solemn silence. The same holds true of written words; you might suppose that they understand what they are saying, but if you ask them what they mean by anything they simply return the same answer over and over again.
Plato, Phaedrus (Hamilton — Penguin Classics — translation)

The danger of writing is that it externalizes memory; memory, written, cannot engage in a relationship with anyone, cannot gauge what needs to be heard at any point, for there to be understanding. We read these excerpts of this dialogue at this point, because they coincide with Meggs's account of the appearance of writing and alphabets, and hence a threat to a certain mode of access to wisdom.

Richard Lanham, in The Economics of Attention: Style and substance in the age of information (2006), places Socrates's criticism of writing in a long tradition of fear of competition for attention. Any new medium (writing, books, printed books, internet etc) is a new form of competition for attention that may be resisted by those invested in current media/forms.

Lanham also usefully restates Eric Havelock's understanding of the importance of the Greek alphabet, as being transparent — You looked right through it to the conceptual arguments it could be employed to set forth (p115). While Havelock approved this "transparent" alphabet, there have been (and continue to be) others, including hieroglyphs, concrete poetry, and surely many of the writing systems discussed in

Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney and Allyson Purpura. Inscribing meaning : writing and graphic systems in African art. [Washington, D.C.] : Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art ; [Milan?] : 5 Continents, c2007.

I read this passage from that volume —
...while most ancient texts were eventualy recorded in alphabetic script, they originated in performance, and much early writing is characterized by ‘recitation literacy… [which is] based on the idea that while letters may have interpenetrated into an oral situation, the oratorical nature of writing and the link between oral discourse and writing were very strong in ancient cultures. The same can be said for earlier and contemporary Islam, and for most African cultures in which texts were and are recited or enacted through performances ranging from praise poems, king lists, epics, songs, divination, genealogies, and narratives both personal and communal, even after becoming transcribed into written texts by missionaries and scholars. Certain of the Classical philosophers, such as Plato, recognized regretfully that writing brought ‘not improved memory, but forgetfulness, by providing the literate with an external device to rely on...
Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura and Christine Mullen Kreamer. Inscribing Meaning; Ways of Knowing, page 21.

Before wandering irrecoverably down the alphabetic path, let's return to the Phaedrus. Writing is not an able teacher or orator, because it is not equipped to analyze and assess the conditions and needs of the audience (reader), and thereby make a prognosis (hence, the comparison of rhetoric to medicine).

During class, we discussed alternatives to this pessimistic view of writing. One can develop good instincts for searching through information; technologies of writing have freqently included alternative channels for grasping and evaluating the information; wikis and blogs and even well-tuned search engines can help someone find the right path. There is also the question of what kind of writing is crucial: writing on souls, or on paper.

Finally (?), our cognitive system may require that ideas be clothed in form (typographic, visual, bodily), so that our bodies (scars and all) too can participate in understanding. The visual (or tactile, or aural) can encourage an emotional connection without which no communication can happen. Lanham is relevant here, by arguing for a necessary oscillation between style and substance, form and meaning.

I will doubtless be revising this post over time. We should be thinking about the connection with graphic design, too!

doing and talking

For next Monday, read these blog essays (and their responses), and Lupton’s essay.

Michael Bierut, This is My Process. DesignObserver (9 Sep 06)

Michael Bierut, On (Design) Bullshit. DesignObserver (9 May 05)

Ellen Lupton, “Design and Social Life.” Pages 24-32 in Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

Our concern here is to allow that discourse can play a role in design practice, and that there are many ways it can do so.

In the background of these readings and our discussion, was Henry Frankfurt his essay On Bullshit, Raritan 6:2 (Fall 1986) : 81-100. The same essay was reprinted by Princeton UP in 2005.