Daniel Neuberger and the Art of Deception

11 February to 9 June 2025

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A genius of illusion

Neuberger was one of the most important and versatile artists at the imperial court. He was particularly well known for his ability to imitate or even surpass other natural materials such as ivory, iron, jewels, and wood using wax.

Between 1650 and 1663, Neuberger worked in Vienna and was active as wax sculptor and portraitist for Emperor Ferdinand III as well as his sons Ferdinand IV and Leopold I. This is where he created his main works, which are now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Two of his most astonishing works – a sixty-part cycle depicting the Metamorphoses after Ovid and an allegorical depiction on the death of Emperor Ferdinand III – received a thorough restoration in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Kunstkammer in recent years and now form the core of this exhibition. These are complemented by a dozen waxworks from Neuberger’s Viennese creative period that are also on show.

Der Kaiserautomat

His innovative technique, for which he was awarded a privilege from Leopold I, followed on from the trompe-l’œil (French for “deceive the eye”), which was extremely popular in 17th century painting. Neuberger transferred the concept to sculpture. His life-size wax figure of the emperor, which he is said to have made for the Viennese treasury and which is supposed to have had a hidden mechanism that allowed it to leave the onlooker with the impression of having come face to face with the actual emperor himself, was the stuff of legends.