Chinggis Khan unified the Mongol tribes of the steppes in 1206, and he and his successors would thereupon establish one of the greatest empires in world history. The elite group of Mongol leaders belonged to the "Altan Urug", which means Golden Clan. This later would become a term for the imperial Mongol clan in general.

The system of rule that was established by the Golden Clan spanned Asia and into Europe. In the Mongol conquests, many artisans in foreign lands were captured and moved along with the armies. Artistic traditions originally from different cultural and geographic areas consequently experienced interaction and innovation within this open system of rule by the Great Khans. For example, as seen in "Portrait of Emperor Shih-tsu (Khubilai Khan)", the artistic techniques to China's southwest blended with the tradition of painting and calligraphy in China proper to create a new style of Yuan imperial portraiture. Traditional painting subjects in China (such as hunting, hawks and falcons, and horses) also found new life and inspiration because of the Mongol rulers, who valued the hunt, horsemanship, and military prowess in their steppe heritage. Thus, an imperial manner of the Khans was invented in art through foreign influences and native re-interpretations.

At the same time, members of the Golden Clan were also actively forming an image of themselves as the new imperial elite of China. In the face of China's deep-rooted traditions in painting and calligraphy, the Yuan imperial clan and nobility gradually embraced the ideology and activities associated with upper class Chinese society. For example, Princess Hsiang-ko-la-chi would come to hold elegant literary gatherings and Emperors Wen-tsung and Shun-ti sponsored the connoisseurship and collection of painting and calligraphy at court and also used art as imperial gifts (as found in the Chinese tradition). Such activities not only reflected the growing sophistication of the Mongol elite in China, but it also helped them to gain the crucial support of literati groups who molded a new ideal in imperial form. Thus, the Golden Clan formed a court culture that reflected the encounter and synthesis of horseback peoples from the steppes with the brush-wielding Chinese from the Central Plains.