Patron Point Of View. Haskell Art History On The Study Of Chinese Art History

Francis Haskell was one of the most important England art historians of his time.He deepened the research and exploration from a brand-new angle. His work, Patronsand Painters: A Study of the Relations between Art and Society in the Age of Baroque, is aclassical masterpiece in the research on art patronage in the Baroque era. This book hasopened up a new field of studying the history of art in terms of patron. However, theintroductions and studies on this book and its research in China is still quite rough, thisthesis aims to do some work in this respect.In this thesis, historiography method of Haskell have been combed and understoodby an intensive reading of the English original work of " patrons and painters ". From alarge number of materials about the patrons, such as: the mechanics ofseventeenth-century patronage, the religious orders, nobility, common people andforeign patrons it expounds the methodological characteristic of the study of art historyand new conclusion of studying in terms of patrons is put forward, in order to provide areference for domestic scholar engaged in research in this respect. Haskell insistedhistorical study and never be credulous the conclusion induced under the frame of theexisting theory, dare to suspect, adopt a large number of the historical materials by theexperience analysis methods, to achieve the aim that " let the past reviving ", and realizethe creative constructing of the new subject to art history and new angle, which isinspiring to the circle of the Chinese art historical studies.The thesis further probes into the significance and possibility to the study ofChinese art history in terms of patron, and investigate the validity and applicability ofthe angle introduced to Chinese art historical studies. Through analyzing theachievements of some western historian of art who had used the approach to studyChinese art history, some problems are found out. For example: they do not have a cleardefinition of the meaning of "patron" in the history of China;they have not analyzed thecharacteristics of social history in China and features of Chinese fine arts culture whilechoosing the historical materials;some just copy Haskell's method mechanically andgive a strained interpretation. Concerning these questions, this thesis has analyzed thevalidity and applicability of study the Chinese art history from the perspective of"patron" and put forward my own view. The innovation of this thesis lies in: Passing theintroduction and explanation to " patron angle " in Haskell's art history studies,analyzing the validity and applicable degree of the "patron angle" when it's used in thestudy of the Chinese art history, I put forward my view: the "patron angle" gives a greatdiscount when studying the art history before middle period of Ming dynasty, but therewill be very good results from the middle period of Ming dynasty. It comes to thefollowing conclusions: it is assertive to think that the patron didn't exist in Chinese arthistory, and points out the rigidity of researching the Chinese art history by applyingwestern theories mechanically without studying Chinese social history.