Staffage

In painting, staffage are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, such as a landscape, that are not the primary subject matter of the work. Before the adoption of the word into the visual arts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, "Staffage" in German could mean "accessories" or "decoration". [cite book|title=Images of Goethe Through Schiller's Egmont|author=John, David Gethin | year = 1998 | publisher = McGill-Queen's Press | pages = 195 | isbn=0773516816] Staffage are accessories to the scene, yet add life to the work; they provide depth to the painting and reinforce the main subject.

During the Baroque, painters such as Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain commonly used staffage. Some landscape specialists had other painters who were more adept at painting the human form add staffage to their canvasses. Staffage may involve biblical or mythological references. For example, in
Pieter Bruegel's "The Fall of Icarus", the mythological Icarus and Daedalus at the bottom right are staffage figures, yet personify intemperance and art, respectively. [cite book|title=Journey Through Landscape in Seventeenth-Century Holland|author=Levesque, Catherine|year=1994|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=0271010495|pages=19]

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