Although there was no "painting academy" in the sense of an actual organization based on the Song definition, painters were summoned to the capital and employed as court painters beginning with the first emperor of the Ming dynasty.*br* Court painters were highly accomplished masters who laid the foundations of the early Ming painting with their distinctive and influential works of art, and court painting flourished under the patronage of the emperor, imperial family members, and government officials from the Yongle period (1403-1424) to the Xiaozong's reign (1488-1505).*br* This article examines the function, subject matter, stylistic characteristics, and patronage of the early Ming court painting during the fifteenth century, which played an important role in the formation and development of the later Chinese painting and enable us to understand Ming painting in a broader historical and cultural perspective.*br* Imperial patronage, was responsible for the revival and popularity of particular themes and styles of court painting. Subject matters such as summoning worthy men to serve their government, stories of auspicious events and meritorious officers demonstrating the effects of enlightened rule were painted and enjoyed at the court as an instrument to convey the images of cultivated and peaceful era ruled by humane emperors.*br* In the early 15th century landscape paintings in the blue-and-green manner and the Li-Guo style were favoured at the court as an emblem of the renewed national unity and powerful government, whereas the Ma-Xia style landscape was rejected because of the negative political implication related to the fallen Southern Song dynasty, until the paintings of the Zhe school style became popular after Xuanzong's reign (1426-1436) with the strong influence of Dai Jin (1388-1462).*br* Consequently particular themes and distinctive styles of court painting appeared in and around the capital, which in turn transmitted to the other areas of the country by artists and patrons traveling back and forth between their hometowns and government posts, and had a substantial influence on professional and literati painters of the time including the Wu school painters of the Suzhou area.*br* Court painters active in the capital also cultivated a network of leading scholar officials who encouraged the artists to work in a wide range of painting traditions by patronizing them privately, and frequent social contacts between literati and professionals contributed to the diverse and eclectic painting styles shared by professional and literati painters of the early Ming dynasty.