(b Varnsdorf, 14 Nov 1816; d Vienna, 27 April 1896). Austrian sculptor. He studied at the Akademie in Vienna where he won several prizes. His early works of the 1840s consisted mainly of religious and historical pieces, mentioned in contemporary documents that also attest to their popularity. He contributed the allegorical figures of Science and Trade to the neo-Gothic bookcase presented by Emperor Francis-Joseph to Queen Victoria in 1851 (London, V&A). From 1850 to 1855 he lived in Rome, where his work was influenced by the sculptor Pietro Tenerani. Pilz’s Apostles (before 1860; in situ) for the chapel of Grafenegg Castle in Lower Austria reveal elements of Tenerani’s style. By this time, however, Pilz had begun to develop a style of his own, characterized by a combination of Baroque and classical elements and by a vigorous monumentality clearly fitted to the demands of sculptural decoration for buildings. He became the favourite sculptor of the architect Theophilus Hansen.