, in
the Hirschelgasse, is one of the finest, perhaps the very best in all
Germany. We do not know whether this was by Krafft or not, but it has a
purity and nobleness that scarcely any other German sculptor attained.

That Krafft had a sense of humor is shown by a bas-relief above the
entrance to the Public Scales. The weigher stands observing the beam,
and beneath it is written, "To thyself as to others." Another man adds a
weight to one scale, and the man who is to be taxed puts his hand into
his money-bag very reluctantly.

Perhaps his most artistic work was the tabernacle in the Church of St.
Laurence. It is sixty-four feet high; the lower part is supported by the
kneeling figures of Krafft and two of his associates. Above this rises a
slender Gothic pyramid ornamented with bas-reliefs and statuettes. He
was employed upon this tabernacle from 1496 to 1500. It is believed that
a "Burial of Christ," in the chapel of the Johannis Cemetery, was his
latest work, and executed in 1507, the year in which he died, in the
hospital of Schwabach. Krafft led a most industrious life, and was so
skilful a workman that he could work with his left hand as readily as
with his right.

TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER was an important sculptor, born at Osterode, in
the Hartz Mountains, probably about 1460. In 1483 he went to Wuerzburg,
and was elected to one honorable office after another, until, in 1520,
he was head burgomaster. After the Peasants' War, in 1525, he was
deprived of his office; he lived but six years after this, and kept
himself in close retirement, not even practising his art.

His sculptures are mostly in stone, and are quite numerous in Wuerzburg
and its vicinity. His monument to the Knight Eberhard von Grumbach, in
the church at Rimpar, was probably his earliest important work. In it he
has contrived to express strength and bravery of character in spite of
the stiff costume, every detail of which is worked out (Fig. 91).

[Illustration: FIG. 91.--COUNT EBERHARD VON GRUMBACH. _Rimpar._]

In 1495 Riemenschneider received the important commission to erect in
Bamberg Cathedral a splendid monument to the Emperor Heinrich II. and
his wife Kunigunde. This occupied him until 1513, and is a splendid
example of his skill. The figures of the two royal personages lie upon a
large sarcophagus; the statues are more than life-size, and are dressed
in the fantastic costume of the fifteenth century. Upon the sides of the
sarcophagus ar