After Daniel Neuberger

With Daniel Katz, 1960s;

D. H. Thomas Trust, until 2013

Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1990 - 2013 (on loan)

Recently the subject of renewed scholarly interest, the ingenious wax sculptor Daniel Neuberger was recorded in the Teutsche Academie, Joachim von Sandrart’s famous observations on the most celebrated artists of mid-17th century Germany. Born in 1621 into an Augsburg family of artists, he was called to the Imperial Court in Vienna by Ferdinand III, where he remained until 1663. Specialising in virtuoso wax sculpture, which often imitated other materials, he enjoyed a prosperous career, later settling in Regensburg.

Neuberger was celebrated for his intricate classical battle scenes derived from engravings by Antonio Tempesta, of which a prime example (in wax) is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. KK 3079). The present bronze relief depicting an ancient Roman battle relates closely in style to Neuberger’s wax relief and, given its inscription of ‘Daniel Neuberger invenit’, is likely to be based on a wax model by the sculptor. While no bronzes by Neuberger are recorded and it is unclear to what extent he may have produced models to be cast in metal, it was proposed by Klapsia (op. cit.) that Neuberger’s workshop may have had a ‘reproduction arm’ in which models in wax and plaster intended for casting were created after the master’s originals.

RELATED LITERATURE

H. Klapsia, ‘Beiträge zur Kunsttätigkeit am österreichischen Kaiserhofe im 17. Jahrhundert, III: Daniel Neuberger’, in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, vol. IX, 1935; J. Diehl et al., Wachs in seinen Händen: Daniel Neubergers Kunst der Täuschung, exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2025