Sandrart relates the following anecdote of Christopher Schwarts, a
famous German painter, which, if true, redounds more to his ingenuity
than to his credit. Having been engaged to paint the ceiling of the Town
Hall at Munich by the day, his love of dissipation induced him to
neglect his work, so that the magistrates and overseers of the work were
frequently obliged to hunt him out at the cabaret. As he could no longer
drink in quiet, he stuffed an image of himself, left the legs hanging
down between the staging where he was accustomed to work, and sent one
of his boon companions to move the image a little two or three times a
day, and to take it away at noon and night. By means of this deception,
he drank without the least disturbance a whole fortnight together, the
inn-keeper being privy to the plot. The officers came in twice a day to
look after him, and seeing the well known stockings and shoes which he
was accustomed to wear, suspected nothing wrong, and went their way,
greatly extolling their own convert, as the most industrious and
conscientious painter in the world.