“This museum, like The dragon house, addresses stories of alliances, disputes, betrayals and wars over 500 years. “As interesting or more interesting than those in the series, some that have even served as inspiration.” This is how Antonio Sánchez Luengo, deputy director of the Royal Collections Gallery, explains the link between a small temporary exhibition on Max’s fiction and the last major museum center inaugurated in the capital.
The first anniversary of the National Heritage space coincides with the premiere of the second season of the prequel to Game of Thrones, which arrives on Max on June 17. Therefore, the room dedicated to The dragon house on the -3rd floor of the space it represents a double celebration. In it, visitors will be able to see from Friday to Sunday (in the case of the 14th with free access to the Gallery) four original costumes and their accessories, created by the team led by costume designer Caroline McCall. All of them have been used in the filming of this new batch of episodes.
Specifically, these are the clothing and accessories of King Aegon II Targaryen (played by Tom Glynn-Carney) and those of his brother Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), defenders of the Green Council, as well as the dress and crown of Rhaenyra Targaryen ( played by Emma D’Arcy) or the armor of her consort, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), heads of the Black Council. It is the first time that all these elements are exhibited together.
In addition, the room is crowned with two portraits of the heirs, King Aegon II Targaryen and Rhaenyra Targaryen, the work of artist Laura Cano. The oil paintings (completed by the artist “in the record time” of a single month) are accompanied by two audio stories, one dedicated to each painting, which reveal to the visitor all the secrets of the first season of the series and the reasons that make one or another heir worthy of the Iron Throne. However, the poor coverage of the room makes access to these audios difficult.
In his brief intervention, Cano mentions that he “could never expect” to see how two of his works share a space with creations by Goya or Velázquez. Likewise, the Targaryens slip between the material and patrimonial memory of the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons. Everyday objects, jewelry, vehicles, paintings or sculptures that “transfer history and your interest in it to the physical plane,” as Sánchez Luengo indicates in his statements to the media during the inauguration of this small exhibition.
Although the proposal came from Max, the Gallery of the Royal Collections boasts about it with enthusiasm. For the deputy director of the venue, “the promotional action is an opportunity to get closer to a type of audience that does not go to museums,” after trying “other dynamic and experimental actions that don’t quite work.” The objective is to reach “a new audience that is a fan of the series, who investigates and generates relationships on social networks.”
“The alliance (what better word) arises from Max, after a brainstorming to overcome the enormous impact of the first season, while we talk about what the new season is going (royalty). The dragon house It has a legion of fans and that is why we want to bring it closer to the public. It has been a wonderful creative process. It is the first time they have exposed themselves to the world in such a complete way. The suits have arrived by plane perfectly accompanied with a great collaboration from the global Max team,” they say from a newly renamed platform that leaves behind the traditional HBO seal.
Sánchez Luengo does not find direct connections with other works in the Royal Collections Gallery, because “little medieval textile remains.” However, he considers that the Targaryen exhibition “serves to compare plural heritage and stories.”
The space turns one year old on June 28 (“one year of life, 500 of history,” indicates its deputy director). Until April, it reached 500,000 visitors, still far from the million and a half who visit the Royal Palace annually or the three million to the Prado and Reina Sofía Museums. In response to a question from Hoy Se Sale, Sánchez Luengo highlights other “multidisciplinary” proposals that will come to the Gallery this summer, although differentiated from this one and more integrated into its activity: from a summer cinema with a monarchical theme to contemporary art interventions with works by Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Asunción Molinos Gordo or José Luis Alexanco.
