As a preliminary attempt to address the tricky task of making abstract or even metaphysical critical art expertise explicit and tangible, enabling connoisseurship of artistic artifacts more objective and convincing, the study presents a new conceptualization: transtantiation. In total, 31 expert calligraphers and 50 non-calligraphers used a 6-point semantic differential scale with 15 paired bipolar word-level adjectival descriptors (15 dimensions) regarding three main components (3 components) relating to regular script Chinese calligraphy developed by Chang & Chang (2022) and rated two groups of six Chinese calligraphic characters (one authored by an expert calligrapher and the other by a non-expert). In order to ensure statistical stringency and rigor for the two-way ANOVA conducted, the significance threshold was adjusted as < 0.003, due to multiple iterations. The two-way ANOVA results have revealed three statistically significant dimensions: (1) Stable Strokes - Shaky Strokes (SS); (2) Even Space Layout - Uneven Space Layout (SL); and (3) Paper-Penetrating Stroke Force -Weak Stroke Force (SF), as well as such three other marginally significant dimensions as (1) Powerful Starting Stroke - Weak Starting Stroke (ST); (2) Tight Center Core - Loose Center Core (CC); and (3) Outward Open Structure - Crowded Structure (SC) are the tangible word-level descriptors to represent the intangible concept of critical art expertise. The study has shown that transtantiation can transform abstraction into concrete descriptors.
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SPECTRUM:NCUE Studies in Language, Literature, Translation, 20(1), p.45-66
