Carving out niches since the Renaissance

Nov 4

Written By Andrew Woodbury

Your business doesn’t need to be unique

Read time: 8 minutes

Here’s our TTT for this week on how to grow your online teaching business.

What is TTT? A Tip, Takeaway, and Task. On Thursday.

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Tip: Carving out niches since the Renaissance

We're not sure if Michalangelo ever carved a Halloween pumpkin, but if he did, it must have been legendary.

While the famed Florentian sculptor may not have tackled marble Jack-o'-lanterns, he carved many niches in his day - literally.

The word "niche" has its origins in Latin and French and was once meant "to nest." Closer to the 16th and 17th centuries, "niche" was first used in English to refer to a nook in a wall where you could display a statue or something else—like a little nest for decorative objects.

And artists and sculptors carved out literal niches all over the place.

The above image is one of Michaelangelo's most famous works, the Medici tomb in Florence. Some of the most powerful and influential members of the Medici family - those who ruled Florence for hundreds of years - are buried here.

Michalangelo was contracted to design and carry out the project.

In the image, you can see some niches in the wall. Some are filled, some are not.

According to the story, Michalangelo had planned to carve a statue of many more members of the Medici family, but didn't get around to finishing it.

With that, many niches in the tomb are empty and waiting to be filled.

These will of course most likely never be filled - but there are many niches in the language world that should be.

Takeaway: There are many niches in the same room

Just because someone does something similar to you doesn’t mean you can’t carve out a great niche for yourself. Heck, even if they do exactly what you do, there’s room for everyone.

As in the renaissance, there are many different niches in the same room.

Yes, comparison is the thief of joy, but learning from others is something to be encouraged as well.

Just look at our renaissance artists:

Some may think artists all did similar work at the same time, but that’s not the case.

Donatello came first and sculpted his bronze David around 1440.

Michelangelo was next, who admired Donatello very much and learned from his work. Michelangelo carved his own marble David around 1504.

Leonardo DaVinci lived around the same time as Michelangelo and admired much of his work. The two had some healthy competition but each was able to carve out their own niche.

The work speaks for itself.