| abstract | - Philipp II. (1527–1598) was a bureaucratic King, who occupied himself with much written work and held his subjects at a distance. The low esteem with which Phillip held them showed itself, among other things, in that his subjects sometimes were not received by the flesh and blood Phillip but instead by a naturalistic counterfeit. Such Audience Figures, which consisted of a painted bust and a suit of armor, were used by Philipp as a Doppelgänger. They allowed him to keep an approriate distance from his subjects and also from foreign emissaries whom he consider unworthy an actual audience. Some Audience Figures were mobile and could turn, nod, and make other similar gestures. These figures of the King are mechanical; indeed Philipps public never suspected that they had been received by an automaton. The Audience Figures shown are currently in the Viennar Hofburg. The Madrid sculptor Pompeo Leoni (um 1533–1610), son of the italian [[Goldsmith] Leone Leoni (1509–1590), created the head, which with the details of the curly beard and swarthy skin are tighly coupled to the armour to give a realistic portrait of the King. The latter is a masterwork of German Waffenschmied from Augsburg, which was specially ordered for Philipp's father Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The engraved goldbands on the breastplate of the armour mark it as a decorative piece used for symbolic purposes rather than a working suit of armor.
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