DailyArt Magazine Explores Seven Paintings That Inspired Game of Thrones Characters

DailyArt Magazine published an article tracing visual parallels between seven paintings and characters from HBO's Game of Thrones. The piece pairs Edward Burne-Jones's 1883 portrait of his wife Georgiana with Catelyn Stark, citing Georgiana's political activism—she won a Rottingdean parish council seat in 1895—and her serious demeanor. The Man with the Golden Helmet, a c.1650 work from the Circle of Rembrandt held at Berlin's Gemäldegalerie, is compared to Ser Jorah Mormont; the article notes the painting's attribution was questioned from the 1960s, with 1980s restoration and technical examination revealing stylistic differences from Rembrandt's Man in Armour in Glasgow. John William Waterhouse's 1910 Ophelia is linked to Sansa Stark, while a 37–41 CE Head of Caligula at Copenhagen's Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is paralleled with Joffrey Baratheon, referencing Caligula's brief reign and reputation for cruelty. John Everett Millais's 1865 Joan of Arc, shown at London's Royal Academy, is compared to Brienne of Tarth. Gustave Courbet's The Desperate Man (1844–1845) is matched with Jon Snow, and Waterhouse's The Soul of the Rose (1908), inspired by Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, is paired with Margaery Tyrell; that painting sold at Christie's in 2007 for 1,140,000 GBP. The article concludes with a speculative note on its future market value.