The naiskos (pl.: naiskoi; Greek: ναΐσκος, diminutive of ναός "temple") is a small temple in classical order with columns or pillars and pediment. Often applied as an artificial motif, it is not rare in ancient art. It also found in classical architecture, particularly in the funeral architecture of the ancient Attic Cemeteries as grave reliefs or shrines with statues like the example of Kerameikos in Athens and in the black-figured and red-figured pottery of Ancient Greece at the Loutrophoros and the Lekythos. Although such naiskoi often draw portraits of men who died, they lack columns and are properly "grave stelae" in English-language scholarship. There also exist naiskos-type figurines or other types of temples formed in terracotta; examples abound at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The naiskos everywhere has a religious background, relating especially to Greek funerary cult. A similar style, called the Aedicula, is observed in Roman art.
The Funerary Stele of a Woman is in the form of a naiskos. It is a funerary sculpture made from Pentelic marble and dates back to approximately 325 – 320 BCE. Originating from Attica, a region in southern Greece, as many naiskoi, the artist is unknown. The stele was acquired by the Ernest Brummer Collection and Brummer Gallery in New York in 1923; auctioned to Galerie Koller, an auction house in Switzerland in 1979; and purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston in 1979, where the monument currently resides.