Staffage

In painting, staffage (French pronunciation: [stafaʒ]) are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, especially 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".

In the latter sense, staffage are accessories to the scene, yet add life to the work; they provide depth to the painting and reinforce the main subject, as well as giving a clear scale to the rest of the composition.

However, when named biblical or mythological figures are used, instead of unnamed "shepherds", "soldiers" and so on, this had the effect, according to the contemporary theory of the hierarchy of genres, in turning a landscape painting into a more prestigious, and often more valuable, history painting, even when the figures are small and inconspicuous amid a large landscape.

By the 19th century, books with patterns for hundreds of different staffage figures were published for painters to "cut and paste" into their compositions.