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Portraiture has always required a delicate negotiation of context. In its most widely recognisable iterations, context becomes a means of expressing stature or personality; location, props, and dress all become key factors in communicating something greater than likeness. Perhaps most famously, Velázquez incorporates the conditions of this negotiation in Las Meninas (1656)—the significance of likeness is shaped by the places and process from which it is born.

Accordingly, Part of the Scenery looks to examine context as a key means through which to understand portraiture and other highly …