ARCHITECT

Life
Greek sculptor from Lindus (Rhodes), Chares was a pupil of the celebrated sculptor Lysippus. He is cited by Polybius, Pliny, Philo of Byzantium, Stobaeus and Strabo.


Work
His most famous work was the Colossus of Rhodes.

- The Colossus of Rhodes: This gigantic bronze statue of Apollo was a work of engineering, mechanics and sculpture all in one, and was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It was 33 metres tall, weighed about 225 tons, and took 12 years to complete (292-280 BC) Its iron skeleton rose from the feet to the head and was braced against the outer shell, which was about 3.5 cm thick, at several points. Chares used vast quantities of sand to bury the growing statue, which he constructed and cast in slow successive stages, working from the feet up. When the work was complete, the hill of sand was dug away and the statue revealed. The total cost of the monument was 300 talents. Fragments of descriptions by Philo of Byzantium, Pliny and Strabo survive. Polybius relates that Ptolemy offered the people of Rhodes 3000 talents to reconstruct it, but this was never done: Strabo notes that "the oracle was against it". The statue snapped at the knees and collapsed during an earthquake in 220 BC. In 654, according to the account preserved by Byzantine chronicler Cedrinos in his "Tales" (11th century), it was sold for scrap to a Jewish merchant, who required 900 camels to carry it away.