【跟着英剧练发音】The Queens Palaces E01-12

 It ended up more elegant vicarage than royal palace, described by one observer as dull, dowdy¹ but decent. Yet inside, there was no mistaking the royal presence. George III covered the walls with pictures from the royal art collection. Most impressive was an enormous picture, by Anthony Van Dyck, of Charles I. A very different sort of king to George.

 

The Rest——

When Charles I had it commissioned of himself, this was saying, "Here I am, Monarch/God. "All powerful." In reality, he was small and bandy, wasn't he?

Yes. Unimpressive, distinctly unimpressive, but what you pay an artist for is to make something recognisably your image, but a lot better. And in this case, the techniques are a low viewpoint, an action shot, so that it looks as if it's punching a hole in the wall and creating this dramatic effect that Charles I, looking like an emperor, is thundering into the room on a charger. Which really, I think, suggests the painting more as an act of propaganda drama than as a nice elegant composition within a frame.

 

 

 翻译：

结果皇宫成了优雅的牧师住宅，观察家称之为平淡，过时但正派，但内部与现在的皇宫无异。乔治三世的皇家艺术收藏挂满了整面墙壁。其中最令人印象深刻的是安东尼·凡·戴克的巨幅画作——查理一世。这是一位与乔治三世截然不同的国王。查理一世当国王的时候，曾经宣称“君权神授”“国王掌握一切权力”。事实上，他很矮小，而且双膝向外弯曲，是吧？

对，极其平淡无奇，但画家要突出一些东西使国王看起来与众不同，所以绘画时就采用了很多技巧。比如，低角度以及动态表现，所以看起来棱角分明，画作上的人物也有了非凡的效果。国王骑着马，看上去威风凛凛。但是我想，这只是戏剧的宣传，而不是一幅优雅的作品。

1 dowdy   

adj.不整洁的；过旧的

参考例句：

• She was in a dowdy blue frock.她穿了件不大洁净的蓝上衣。
• She looked very plain and dowdy.她长得非常普通，衣也过时。