The Imperial Portrait Gallery is a large hallway in the Golden Palace containing large portraits of previous Shahanshahs. The portraits are deeply stylized, painted in a Xiao style. They are considered some of the greatest works of art in the Imperium.
The tradition of the Gallery was started during the reign of Shahanshah Pelgos I during a state visit by agents of the Zhang Dynasty of Xiao, who presented the Shahanshah with a large portrait of himself. Delighted by the portrait, Pelgos hired the artist who had painted the portrait and commissioned portraits of all three previous Shahanshahs. Since then, it has been tradition of each Shahanshah to have a portrait made of their predecessor and to hire a greatly skilled Xiao artist to paint it to maintain stylistic consistency amongst the paintings.
Unlike the statues in the Garden of the Emperors, the great paintings in the Gallery are not necessarily true to life.