Intended for private bedside devotion, German house altars like this one seldom survive, particularly with their original cabinetry intact. The refined crucifixion group, comprised of a crucified Christ, skull and crossbones, Mater Dolorosa (grieving Virgin Mary), and St. John the Evangelist, is the signature work of Franz Anton Bustelli, perhaps the greatest of all European porcelain modelers. Bustelli first rose to prominence in 1754 at the Nymphenburg manufactory, which served the Bavarian court and strove to raise the artistry of ceramic sculpture to the level of marble and bronze.