See how TIME put together that colorful Game of Thrones cover shoot

Last week, TIME released a special double issue with a cover story all about Game of Thrones season 7. In addition to lots of great interviews with the cast and crew, the story featured several colorful, very stylized images from photographer Miles Aldridge.

What was Aldridge thinking when he put together these distinctive pictures? He told TIME all about it.

Clearly, the photos don’t look like something you’d see on a normal episode of Game of Thrones. But Aldridge still had classical influences, including northern Renaissance painters Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach.

According to Aldridge, the images Dürer and Cracnach produced “were fascinating because of their insane attention to detail.” Hence, the shoot includes a lot of ornate outfits and props. In her individual shoot, Lena Headey stands in front of a bunch of swollen pomegranates, which are apparently symbols of “life, rebirth, and marriage.” That ties into Cersei’s powerful maternal instincts.

For that splashy cover photo, Aldridge looked at Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper and the paintings of Cy Twombly. There was one small problem: Emilia Clarke wasn’t available to shoot the cover photo together with everyone else, so she was shot separately a couple days later and photoshopped in.

Another good question: why is there a dog on the cover? “Whether it’s The Circumcision of Christ or Christ on the Cross, there’s always a dog sniffing around for something,” Aldridge said. If you say so.

The dog’s name was Sid, and he played the part of the “regal hound” very well.

Keeping with the Renaissance inspirations, Aldridge wanted to make his shot of showrunners David Beniof and Dan Weiss as awkward as possible. “What I love about those paintings is the uncomfortableness of them,” he said. “So my direction to [Weiss and Benioff] was try and feel as uncomfortable as you can…as if you’re really not enjoying this process.”

Mission accomplished. Either that, or Benioff and Weiss really didn’t enjoy the process, and now Aldridge is trying to cover.

If nothing else, the photoshoot provided the cast members with some interesting headshots. And for completion’s sake, here are the video interviews with Kit Harington…

…and Peter Dinklage.