One of the most eloquent descriptions of the Renaissance image of human beings comes from the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). In his Oration on the Dignity of Man (ca. 1986), Pico describes humans as free to become whatever they choose.
The best of artisans [God] ordained that the creature [man] to whom He had been able to give nothing proper to himself should have joint possession of whatever had been peculiar to each of the different kinds of being. He therefore took man as a creature of indeterminate nature and, assigning him a place in the middle of the world, addressed him thus:
“Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar thyself have We given thee, Adam, to the end that according to thy longing and according to thy judgment thou mayest have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire.