Portrait of a Syrian Woman: jewellery, dress, and identity

Jewellery and art history

Portrait of a Syrian Woman: jewellery, dress, and identity

Published Feb 11, 2025

Jewellery and Art History — one of the things that intrigues me is how jewellery and dress are depicted in portraits, genre paintings, and historical scenes. Particularly when the artist is from outside the region, the way adornment is shown can tell us a lot about regional costume, ornamentation, and identity. So, I’m starting a new blog series on Jewellery & Art to explore how adornment in art history across North Africa and Southwest Asia reveals meaning beyond beauty. Kicking it off with this painting: Portrait of a Syrian Woman by Jean-François Portaels!

This blog is part of my series on Jewellery and Art, in which I take a closer look to jewellery and dress in art. You can also read about Oriental Beauty with Sineklik, and other works to come!

Jewellery & Art: how portraits show regional dress and ornament

Western painters, particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries, frequently depicted jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia in their works. You’ll find adornment appearing in portraits, genre paintings, and historical scenes, offering viewers an impression of distant cultures. While some artists approached their subjects with a keen eye for the craftsmanship and details of the jewellery, others incorporated these elements to serve specific artistic or narrative purposes – and in doing so, veered off the course of reality. That’s what makes studying these depictions interesting.

Portaels’ Portrait of a Syrian Woman: overview and context

One example that illustrates both the strengths and limitations of such representations is Jean-François Portaels’ Portrait of a Syrian Woman, painted around 1865. The painter is regarded as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school, and he actually did travel to the region: he visited Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

Portrait of a Syrian Woman: the jewellery

So, what do we see? The woman depicted wears a necklace of silver coins and a cross pendant—both elements historically worn in Syria – but also elsewhere in the region.

But is it really a necklace? If you look closer tot he painting, it seems to be a combination of two types of jewellery: the rigid torc worn in Syria, and the Palestinian iznāq. I believe that what appears to be a necklace might actually be the iznāq: a silver chain hooked into the headdress, weighing it down below the chin. See a few details in the gallery below (click to enlarge the images).

The misunderstanding of this function reveals how even detailed paintings could still get it wrong: if you don’t quite get this type of adorment, it’s very hard to render it correctly.

Portrait of a Syrian Woman: headdress and regional costume in the Jerusalem region

The woman’s dress closely resembles the thobe malak as worn in the Jerusalem area, and her head covering appears to include the headdress known as the shatweh: its contours can be seen below the flowing veil, just as in historic photographs. The headdress in the painting is fastened under her chin with a strap.

Regional identity: Palestine, Syria and ‘Greater Syria’ in 19th century art

These details indicate that the lady may be from Palestine, rather than Syria, and more precisely from the Jerusalem region. The cross indicates she was a Christian woman – other than this pendant, there are no other signs of religion. Religion comes in second, after regional or local affiliation: in most cases, it is impossible to tell what faith someone belonged to, only what they called home.

But when she is Palestinian, why is the painting called ‘Portrait of a Syrian Woman’? For this, we need to look at the historical context of the time. When this painting was made, the entire region, including present-day Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, was collectively referred to as Greater Syria.

What jewellery and dress tell us about identity in portraits

In Portrait of a Syrian Woman, it is the dress and jewellery of the woman depicted that continue to speak for her, even when borders, place names, and centuries change.

Even though the necklace of silver coins and cross pendant represent a misinterpreted iznaq, her headdress and dress tell us about place, identity, – and how cultural ornament was rendered by artists. Portraits like this are more than visuals; when done right, they’re coded expressions of region and social belonging.

In the Jewellery & Art series, I hope to explore more of these visual stories: how costume, jewellery, and dress intersect to reveal who people were — in art, history, and identity.

You’ll find the next blog in the series Jewellery & Art here:

Decoding Habiba’s Jewellery

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