Exploring the Development, Themes, and Contemporary Perspectives of Chinese Architectural Painting

China, as a historical country, its economic prosperity has promoted the progress of art, art painting and architecture are inextricably linked. Architectural painting is the perfect meeting point of the two, exuding a unique artistic charm, waiting for our careful taste. This paper mainly discusses the following aspects: first, this paper reviews the development of Chinese architectural painting; second, it combs the development of architectural painting in ancient China; next, it expounds on the process of the emergence, development, prosperity and decline of architectural painting with the appearance of boundary painting as the demarcation point, which focuses on the heyday of its development—Song Dynasty; then, the theme of Chinese architectural painting is divided into four categories: garden, palace, custom and religion, and the development and characteristics of each category are explained. At last, the paper discusses the basic situation of contemporary architectural painting, and looks forward to its future development prospects. Architectural painting is the treasure of the world of painting art. This paper strives to deeply, comprehensively and objectively explore architectural painting, hoping to attract people’s attention to this subject of painting at the same time. We hope to provide contemporary painters with rich artistic expression forms, artistic techniques and aesthetic taste.