staffage

Every city of any historic importance breeds a class of mortals that are born guides; they have come to belong to the "staffage" of picturesque surroundings; and in this respect Prague is happily yet unspoilt.

From a Terrace in Prague Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker

If, as Michiel and the 1569 inventory perhaps imply, the figures were mere staffage, added to heighten the mood, to underline mankind's vulnerability before the forces of nature, it would certainly make this masterpiece quite unique in the history of Renaissance art.

Reading the 'Tempest' Friedman, B.H. 1991

Wild birds form of themselves a very conspicuous and interesting feature in the staffage, as painters call it, of the natural landscape, and they are important elements in the view we are taking of geography, whether we consider their immediate or their incidental influence.

Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 02 (historical) 1874

Wild birds form of themselves a very conspicuous and interesting feature in the staffage, as painters call it, of the natural landscape, and they are important elements in the view we are taking of geography, whether we consider their immediate or their incidental influence.

The Earth as Modified by Human Action George P. Marsh 1841

And that, surely, is the point - in a painted landscape, the land, the horizon and the sky should dominate, with figures, animals and other staffage mere embellishments to decorate the view.

Evening Standard - Home Brian Sewell 2011

No painting better makes the point that these works record the city's daily life than his View of the Tiber at the Ripa Grande, even though the figures in the foreground have something of a biblical air and echo the staffage of Salvator Rosa; the canvas is big, roughly one metre high and two wide, the scale at which he is most at ease.

Evening Standard - Home 2008