A dove between two figures

Follow the seated woman's hands. One lifts her veil; the other extends a dove towards a small girl, who raises her arm. It is a quiet exchange, and you can begin to understand its effect before knowing anything about the people represented. This carved stone is a funerary stele, an upright slab made to commemorate the dead. It was carved in Athens around the end of the fifth century before our era. In a room of Greek memorial and religious monuments, it invites a particularly close look at an ordinary human gesture. We cannot confidently name the two figures, say exactly how they were related or identify which person the monument commemorated. Their interaction still gives the stone a sense of closeness. Notice how your eyes move from the woman's face to her hands, then towards the girl's raised arm. The little bird helps hold that exchange together. More than two thousand years later, an image made for remembrance can still draw your attention through a gesture you recognise.