Niccolo Machiavelli exemplified new secular ideas of the Renaissance in his book, The Prince. In this book Machiavelli describes the way in which princes ought to behave. In the middle ages books such as this would be filled with the moral standered the prince had to live up to, and how he could glorify God. In this book however not once does Machiavelli mention God or hold the prince to a moral standered of any sort. Machiavelli describes how a prince should not hold to morals and if the state is threatened it is right and good for him to behave immorally. If he has to commit crimes in order to help the state they will be glorious crimes. He stated that ideally it would be best to be feared and loved but much better to be feared if one had to be done away with. Overall The Prince shows a massive breaking away from the politics of the middle ages.
In the Renaissance one of the earliest artists was that of Ghiberti. He was commissioned to create bronze paneled doors on the baptistery next to the Duomo, after winning a contest to decide the artist. The set of doors had twenty-eight panels with scenes from the new testament. After this he was commissioned to do the doors for the church which had ten larger panels. This second set was considered so fine that Michelangelo called them, “The gates of paradise.” Fra Angelico was a Dominican fryer who still retained some of the medieval style but with Renaissance influences as well. One of the paintings is the Annunciation c 1440.
In it you can see depth and perspective in the background but with some medieval influences in the people. Masaccio had a relatively short life and yet still created some great works of art. He was one of the first people to practice Brunelleschi’s mathematical perspective of art. In Masaccio’s The Holy Trinity fresco you can see the perception of depth in the background and individualism in the faces. The Renaissance was a turning point in the history of art and perspective.