Does machiaveli's The Prince talk about the need to be a patron of the arts?

[demarco]

I am doing an essay for AP European history class and I want to know if any chapters in Machiavelli's The Prince talk about how bold political actions and art tie together in the Italian Renaissance.

[torin7]

A PRINCE ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank

Additionally: the last sentence in the paragraph is a clue

Concerning The Way To Govern Cities Or Principalities Which Lived Under Their Own Laws Before They Were Annexed

WHENEVER those states which have been acquired as stated have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom, there are three courses for those who wish to hold them: the first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, the third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you. Because such a government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot stand without his friendship and interest, and does its utmost to support him; and therefore he who would keep a city accustomed to freedom will hold it more easily by the means of its own citizens than in any other way.

A wise prince that knows that a population that is allowed to keep its interest in the arts will be a population easier to subjugate.

Read Chapter 18 that will give you a real good foundation on the admired quality of deception. A prince understands that he must possess some good qualities but it is more important to appear to have those good qualities than to actually possess them. Allowing the arts and the Renaissance to flourish in a city state whose population held the arts in high regard should be allowed to maintain those "devices" even through the Princes' deception.

After all isn't the philosophy that comes from The Prince "The Ends justify the Means?"