Jiaozhi Ware: Performances on the Water Wheel Gable

Show a horizontal decorative band beneath the eaves of a Taiwanese temple, filled with low-fired polychrome ceramic figures depicting a scene from opera. Render the band as a recessed panel roughly 40 centimetres tall running several metres, its interior staged like a shallow theatre: a group of eight to ten glazed figures in armour and robes arranged in a battle or court scene, with painted architectural backdrops, rocks, horses and banners built up in relief behind them. Detail the glazes in the characteristic palette — deep aubergine, turquoise, amber yellow, jade green and cream — with a soft glassy sheen and fine crazing, colours slightly uneven as low-firing produces. Model faces and hands with real expression, and armour with incised detail picked out in contrasting glaze. Show the panel framed by moulded plaster mouldings and the tiled eave overhanging above, casting a shadow across the top. Photorealistic, jewel-toned, narrative and finely modelled, eye-level close view.