The Precision of Portraiture To look at the surviving works of B. Stael is to encounter the rigid social hierarchies of the early 18th century through a lens of stark, unadorned reality. Stael was not a painter of grand allegories or sweeping landscapes, but a specialist in the human likeness. The artist’s output is defined by a specific, localized focus on the Dutch elite, capturing the likenesses of individuals who demanded a precise…