(b Vienna, 27 July 1844; d Vienna, 12 March 1914). Austrian sculptor. After beginning his studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, he became a pupil of Ernst Julius Hähnel in Dresden and then received a scholarship that allowed him to travel for two years. In 1868 he won a prize from the Akademie in Vienna for his group Genevieve Teaching the Afflicted How to Pray and between 1870 and 1871 he was in Rome. In 1872 he set up a workshop in Vienna and carved eight Old Testament figures for the Votivkirche in the city. A year later the emperor commissioned from him the colossal work Austria between the Material and the Spiritual Cultures, which was intended for the Waffenmuseum. Over the years he produced many sculptural works for major buildings in the capital, mostly based on mythological or allegorical subjects. For the Hofmuseen in Vienna he created some decorative bronzes (Helias and Athena and Eros and Psyche) and for the Parliament building, likewise in Vienna, he carved the marble statue group Interior Administration and also four Caryatids. Other late works include his memorial of the painter Friedrich von Amerling (1902) for the Stadtpark in Vienna and the patriotic memorial of the Deutschmeister (1906), which was erected in the Deutschmeisterplatz in Vienna. Benk was also responsible for many portrait busts and monuments of the Emperor Franz Josef I (e.g. marble bust, 1863; Vienna, Heeresgesch. Mus.).