出於宣揚忠君思想的需要，《漢書•蘇武傳》通過行為、語言、外貌、神態描寫及對比映襯等文學手法，塑造了一個堅貞不屈的愛國志士形象。歷代蘇武題材繪畫數量眾多，但集中在「蘇武牧羊」和「蘇李泣別」兩個情景上，主要表現的是《蘇武傳》忠君愛國的主旨，同時也表現了中國人普遍的懷鄉情結，並隱含着畫家們對李陵人生困境的同情和感慨。可見，畫家對史傳文學的接受是能動的。蘇武題材繪畫擴大了蘇武形象的認知範圍，加深了人們對他的理解和崇敬之情，對其所代表的民族精神的傳播具有積極意義。
Due to advocating the need of ideological loyalty to the emperor, the ”SuWu biography” in Han Shu shaped an unyielding patriot image through literary techniques such as behavior, language, appearance, the description of demeanor, comparison and contrast. There had a lot of paintings about SuWu past dynasties, but most of them concentrated in two scenarios ”SuWu shepherd” and ”weeping departure between Su and Li”, which mainly expressed the patriotic theme of ”SuWu biography”, but also reflected the Chinese universal homesickness complex, and implied the artists' sympathy and lament on Liling's life predicaments. So the artists' acceptance of biographical literature is active. The paintings about SuWu expanded the cognitive scope of SuWu image and deepened the understanding and reverence on him. It has positive significance on the spread of the national spirit which represents.
