"The most powerful artistic impression of women"

"She’s completely at ease and staring down any kind of gaze."

"She's completely at ease and staring down any kind of gaze."

Curator Alisa LaGamma on "Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Female."

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310870

Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.

Photography by Anna-Marie Kellen

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Contributors

Alisa LaGamma
Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

A small wooden carved box featuring figures and a tree in relief.
The author of After Sappho offers a queer feminist reading of Eve and the serpent, reimagining sin as likeness, desire, and bodies transcending gender and species.
Selby Wynn Schwartz
January 9
A close-up detail of a painted face rendered in muted green, blue, and gray tones.
Author Leena Krohn reflects on Helene Schjerfbeck’s portrait of Sigrid Nyberg.
Leena Krohn
December 18, 2025
Black woman wearing all black, standing in front of mannequins dressed in blue, yellow and beige.
Video

Superfine Artist Tanda Francis, shares her inspiration behind the design of the custom mannequins used in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition.

October 23, 2025
More in:Art Explained

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Eyema byeri (reliquary guardian figure), Okak-Fang artist, Wood, copper alloy, palm oil, Okak-Fang peoples
Okak-Fang artist
19th century