The ancient Greek myth of Cadmus battling a snake could be an allegory for the discovery of the Amazon River, said Dr. Enrico Mattievich, a retired professor of physics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. Mattievich wrote a book titled “Journey to the Mythological Inferno” in 2011, exploring connections between Greek myths and South American geographical and historical sites.
along with two others, it tells the story of prince cadmus, the founder of the city of thebes. for 200 years, it s hung next to lyme park s grand drawing room in the stag parlour. but its weight, and sunlight, have caused significant damage. it s starting to pull apart the stitching, so we ve got splits over here. big holes. that s it. and all the faces, you can see that they ve got their features here, but once it s washed, all the colours will come back. and although the light will have faded the colours, this beautiful red will become even brighter. the restoration will cost around £150,000 and take over 1,000 hours. rosamund is one of the conservators who ll be working on it. we ll strip it down, surface clean it and then send it off to a facility in belgium. it s like a large shower cubicle and it s really efficient at removing the dirt. and then it will come back to the studio and we ll put it
fancy tea but nothing hits the spot like a proper cup of tea. would you agree? i was looking for mine, then. i have left two tea bags in it. that is another conversation. now, as repairjobs go, this one s pretty unique. specialists from the national truest will spend the next two years restoring a one of a kind tapestry. it s remained untouched for 400 years so is long overdue a bit of tlc. but first, they had to get it off the wall as abbiejones reports. how many people does it take to unhang an historic heirloom? as many as possible. this is slow, difficult and delicate work. each part of the 17th century tapestry has to be prised off the velcro it s attached to and wound around a huge roller without further damaging the stitching. this is cadmus sent in search of europa before it was covered in scaffolding.
Cadmus, the first Greek hero, founder of Thebes and descendant of Zeus, triumphed over a dragon, did great things, and then was betrayed by the gods and killed.