Northern Official Style: Green and Blue Painting with Yellow Glazed Tiles

A wooden paifang (archway) in the Northern official style. The form is regular, with wide and stable proportions, and the roof is covered with bright yellow glazed tiles, representing the highest-grade color usage. The dougong bracket layer is dense and orderly, with every bracket having identical size and spacing. The colorful paintings are official-style旋子彩画 (xuanzi caihua, swirling pattern painting) or和玺彩画 (hexi caihua, imperial painting): the main colors are cool tones of cyan and green, outlined with gold lines for contours and pattern frameworks, with red used only on the columns and a few other parts; the patterns are standardized swirling flowers, dragon motifs, and geometric borders, with symmetrical composition and fixed proportions, leaving no room for free expression. The overall impression is one of rigor, standardization, and officialdom. The background features palace walls and pines and cypresses. Avoid: using warm-toned folk paintings, having inconsistent sizes and spacing for the dougong brackets, adding freely expressed decorative patterns, using gray tiles and lower-grade color usage.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一座北方官式做法的木牌樓。形制規整、比例寬穩,屋頂覆蓋明黃色的琉璃瓦,是最高等級的用色。斗栱層密集而規矩,每一朵的尺寸與間距完全一致。彩畫是官式的旋子彩畫或和璽彩畫:主色是青與綠的冷色調,以金線勾勒輪廓與圖案的骨架,紅色只用在柱身與少數部位;圖案是規範化的旋花、龍紋與幾何邊飾,構圖對稱、比例固定,沒有自由發揮的空間。整體給人嚴謹、規範、官方的印象。背景是宮牆與松柏。避免:使用暖色調的民間彩畫、讓斗栱的尺寸與間距不一致、加入自由發揮的裝飾圖案、使用灰瓦與低等級的用色。