Painting is mainly a decorative art in Rome. As wall-decorations, Roman fresco-painting consisted of architectural vistas, landscape or figure compositions. In general, Roman wall decoration continued to make use of architectural elements of architectural divisions as the basis of its schemes, Roman painters, inspired by Greek painting, painted epic scenes, landscapes, still life, scenes from everyday life. However, during the time of August, there was a fashion for garden painting which gave the illusion of opening up the wall with a view into a garden.

Roman developed the “impressionistic” technique which especially used in fantasy landscapes – view of imaginary countryside with buildings, houses, harbor scenes. The impresionistic technique appears first as an experiment in the treatment of light and color. It was accepted by the artist, and became powerful influence in the development of painting.