From Tiny Tradesmen to Lilliputian Locals: Exploring “staffage” in architectural drawings

Most architectural exhibitions are about the buildings, but this one isn’t — it’s about the figures added to architectural drawings to show off the scale of the buildings.These little figures, known as staffage, are sometimes simply decorative, sometimes used to show how a space might be used, or sometimes, deceptions to make buildings look bigger than they are. Although staffage has been used since mankind started creating art, it was the Georgian era that saw it take off as a