In GNUPlot it is possible to plot a function on a surface (see, for example, this question). Similar thing can be done in Mathematica (see this question).
Is it possible to do the same thing in Matplotlib? Alternatively, is it possible to map the colourmap by the function that one intends to plot on the surface?
A good example of this is plotting an ellipsoid, and visualising the Gauss curvature at each point on it with the colourmap.