A New Concept of Human Beings One of the features of humanist culture was a slackening of the control of religion over human life. Italians were strongly attracted to material wealth, power and glory, but they were not necessarily irreligious. Francesco Barbaro ( - ), a humanist from Venice, wrote a The Duomo, the dome of Florence cathedral designed by Brunelleschi. Leon Batista Alberti ( - ) wrote on art theory and architecture.
‘Him I call an Architect who is able to devise and to compleat all those Works which, by the movement of great Weights, and by the conjunction and amassment of Bodies can, with the greatest Beauty, be adapted to the uses of Mankind.’ pamphlet defending acquisition of wealth as a virtue. In On Pleasure , Lorenzo Valla ( - ), who believed that the study of history leads man to strive for a life of perfection, criticised the Christian injunction against pleasure. There was also a concern at this time with good manners – how one should speak politely and dress correctly, what skills a person of culture should learn. Humanism also implied that individuals were capable of shaping their own lives through means other than the mere pursuit of power and money.
This ideal was closely tied with the belief that human nature was many-sided, which went against the three separate orders that feudal society believed in. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about human nature in the fifteenth chapter of his book, The Prince ( ). ‘So, leaving aside imaginary things, and referring only to those which truly exist, I say that whenever men are discussed (and especially princes, who are more exposed to view), they are noted for various qualities which earn them either praise or condemnation. Some, for example, are held to be generous, and others miserly.
Some are held to be benefactors, others are called grasping; some cruel, some compassionate; one man faithless, another faithful; one man effeminate and cowardly, another fierce and courageous; one man courteous, another proud; one man lascivious, another pure; one guileless, another crafty; one stubborn, another flexible; one grave, another frivolous; one religious, another sceptical; and so forth.’ Machiavelli believed that ‘all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature partly because of the fact that human desires are insatiable’. The most powerful motive Machiavelli saw as the incentive for every human action is self-interest.