Bowl Scene

This is a detail from an Asian lacquered bowl I've had for years, but I never really studied it before I started playing around with macro shots of it today.

The very shallow depth of field, combined with the curvature of the bowl , makes the scene seem much more 3-dimensional than it looks to the naked eye. I'm not sure what whoever painted it had in mind, but it seems to me like the two central figures have set off on an adventure in some mysterious, exotic land...