In the R.F. period more and more attention is paid to landscape and architectural detail as the style develops, but there is still a strong tendency to adhere to the shorthand system—a tendency which increases rather than disappears, especially on the white-ground vases. The artist’s object was always to make his figures stand out, as far as possible, clear against the background, and he therefore deliberately avoided anything likely to interfere with the desired effect. Landscape proper, with indications of ground-lines, rocks, and trees, was only introduced when the Polygnotan influence became strong, and the Orvieto krater in the Louvre may be once more cited as a good and early instance of a new development. Scenes in architectural settings are rare, but an exception may be noted in the case of some of the late R.F. vases with scenes in women’s apartments, where careful attention is paid to the details of the door-ways, even to the locks and key-holes.[2008] For the rest, it usually sufficed to indicate the palaestra by a strigil or oil-flask suspended, or a pair of jumping-weights; musical gatherings by a lyre or a flute in a case; banqueting-rooms by cups and other vases hung up, or by rows of boots. Similarly, women’s apartments are represented by a window, door, or column, or by sashes, hoods, mirrors, wreaths, and wool-baskets scattered about.[2009]
In the vases of Southern Italy this principle is carried almost to excess. Not only is the old idea of rosettes and flowers scattered about the scene revived, but the whole surface of the design is often covered with miscellaneous objects, such as balls, sashes, and mirrors. On the Apulian vases the use of a double line of white dots to indicate the ground is invariable, and loose stones are scattered about where it is intended to be rocky. Flowers grow about in rich profusion. In the mythological scenes an elaborate architectural background is frequent, and altars, tripods, and columns serve the same end; the _heroa_ or shrines and other forms of tomb in the sepulchral scenes have already been described. In athletic scenes, especially on the reverse of the kraters, a ball, a stylus and tablets, or a pair of jumping-weights are suspended in the air to indicate the palaestra; and on Lucanian vases subjects of a military nature are suggested by a suspended shield only partly visible. The “courting-scenes” on Apulian vases usually have a representation of a window in a corner of the design.