Usage examples (4)

• 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...
• 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...
• 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...
• 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...