A Study On The Relationship Between The Patronage Of Folk Art And The Development Of The Wu School

The flourishing of folk art patronage relies on the prosperous development of the social economy and culture.The development of the commodity economy and other factors led to the rise of the citizen class,forming a consumer group with a huge demand for cultural and spiritual consumption.Among them,the patrons,consisting of wealthy merchants,literary scholars and ordinary people,purchased,appraised and financed works of calligraphy and painting,forming the object of attention in this paper,"folk art patronage".Suzhou led the country in collection patronage,forming a collection patronage circle centered in Suzhou.Relying on the development of the commodity economy and the literati sentiments of the literati,a group of literati gathered in Suzhou,and the Wu School emerged at this time.The Wu School,which was active from the Ming dynasty to the Ming Wanli period,is an art school in the history of Chinese painting and is a case of art history in which the elite culture penetrated the secular culture.This paper analyzes and discusses the extent of the influence of art patronage on the development of the Wu School by taking the Wu School and folk art patronage as the object of study and combining them with historical documentary evidence.It presents the profound influence of art patronage on the development of the Wu School from various perspectives,including the patronage activities of art patrons,the exchanges between scholars and merchants,and the commercialization of art.The whole article is divided into four main sections.The first part starts from the perspective of the background of the times and clarifies the social background of the rise of folk art patronage in the mid-Ming period:the political liberalization of the imperial court to the local level,the flourishing of the commodity economy,and the complex and changing literary sentiments of the literati scholars,all of which played a part in the rise and development of folk art patronage.The second part examines the composition of folk art patrons,mainly composed of literati,wealthy businessmen,and ordinary people;discusses the forms of folk art patronage to the Wu School,either directly with money,or in other ways such as Sponsorship by providing accommodation,bartering,etc.The third part deeply analyzes the promotion and promotion effect of folk art sponsorship on the development of Wu School.In the context of social development in the mid-Ming Dynasty,on the one hand,the patronage of folk art promoted the development of the Wu School.On the other hand,the painter’s aesthetic tendencies are pushed in new directions.The fourth part,following the above-mentioned research,proposes the duality of folk art sponsorship in the development of the Wu School.Under the social background of the middle and late Ming Dynasty,the patronage of folk art may reduce the artistry of the paintings of the Wu School,which is not conducive to the sustainable development of the Wu School to a certain extent.