Research On Imperial Art Academy System Of The Northern Song And The Southern Song Dynasties

This subject is a research on the Imperial Art Academy System of the two SongDynasties, with the purpose to find the real appearances of the artists working in theImperial Art Academy, to make profound analysis on the influences of the System tothe education and creation in the Academy, and to discuss in a further manner aboutthe significant function of the Academy on the image construction of the SongDynasty.The first part of this thesis is mainly about the existence situation of the imperialpainting institutions, organization systems of imperial painter before the SongDynasty, and thus the description of the development and perfection of the ImperialArt Academy System of the Song Dynasty; the second part is the exploration of thecooperation relationship among artists within the System, the birth and growth of theeducation in the Academy, and analyzes the supplement function of the birth of ArtTheory to the Academy System; the third part mainly addresses the influences of theAcademy System to the aesthetics within the Academy, the effect to the academicpainting style, as well as the changes of painting styles under different politicalsystems in different stages; the four part mainly states how the Imperial Art AcademySystem that was established under strengthening imperial power constructed theimage of the Song Dynasty under the influence of the political system.Through analysis we can find: firstly, comparing with the Tang and FiveDynasties, Song was not a dynasty that provided good treatment to artists in its ArtAcademy, and the artists were facing a series of problems such as low status, poorsalary, hard promotion, etc. Secondly, the strict rules and criteria in this Systemblocked the development of its education, which were in a waxing and waningrelationship with each other. Thirdly, under the influence of the Academy System, thepainters could not exert freely but limitedly in their creation, and had to concludestrong political intension in their works. The cause of the three results was the imageestablishment activities by the Academy of the Song Dynasty under the managementof the strict System. As the Academy System became mature, the Academy becamean official branch of the administration, the imperial dictatorship failed to turn to themanagement according to the national system, the birth and development of theImperial Art Academy System of the Song Dynasty were established on the basis ofstrengthening the domination of imperial power, and the academy was supervised andmanaged to maintain the good image of the Song Dynasty.