Targaryen Kings Statues Concept Art Released by Qingling Zhang
I don’t have the time to do a proper “art in HotD” writeup for these but I just wanted to add them to the posts because I’m absolutely thrilled to see the Great Hall so well lit and with this level of detail. I hope that in the next seasons this amazing set gets the attention it deserves because the craftsmanship and attention to detail that has been poured into it deserves to be highlighted – I’m not going to lie, the statues looked a lot more nondescript in the show, enough that I assumed they were meant to be generic pre-Conquest ancestors, while in fact they are THEE Targ kings from Aegon I to Jaehaerys (so actually covering the dynasty up until very recent times), each with his own defining characteristics. Some stray observations:
I especially love how Maegor has been designed as a hooded, faceless figure, a way to acknowledge his place in the dynasty (although he’s the only one who doesn’t display the Targaryen sigil) but also erase his features because of his infamy, and a blatant callback to the iconography of the Stranger
Will the addition of other kings be featured in future episodes? in F&B, Aegon II commissions colossal statues of Aemond and Daeron to be built in King’s Landing, and this might be a way to integrate that tidbit from the book into the show.
These well lit bts shots show a pretty nice glimpse of the lower part of the columns, though to be honest I’m still a bit at loss on what *exactly* they represent besides “battle scenes with dragons”. The only impression I get is that they look kind of samey, so they probably all represent the same event, or series of events, regardless of the king covering the upper half of the column.
The wedding table also seems to be decorated with a bas relief roughly in the same style as the columns, depicting a chariot race (it’s hard to make out the detail but I doubt it’s a battle as a martial theme doesn’t feel fitting for a wedding, especially not one arranged by decidedly nonmartial Viserys)
(more art in hotd) - (more art in westeros)