Oriental woman with sineklik

Oriental woman with sineklik

by | Jewellery & Art

Jewellery and art history

Oriental beauty with sineklik

Published May 24, 2025

Jewellery in paintings — that’s something I always keep an eye on. It tells you not only about the fashion and the painter’s eye for detail, but also about how people at the time viewed dress and adornment. Oriental Woman with Sineklik, painted by Pinel de Grandchamp in 1846, is one such portrait that draws us in with both costume and ornament.

This blog is part of my series on Jewellery and Art, exploring how artists depicted jewellery and dress in portraits and Orientalist paintings. You can also read Portrait of A Syrian woman, Decoding Habiba’s jewellery, and more posts in this series as it grows.

Oriental beauty with sineklik by Pinel de Grandchamp

This article focuses on a single painting, Oriental Beauty with Sineklik (also known as Odalisque à l’éventail) by the French artist Louis-Emile Pinel de Grandchamp, and explores how the jewellery in the painting places the woman painted in her cultural context – and where things went wrong.

Pinel de Grandchamp and the Orientalist tradition

Louis-Emile Pinel de Grandchamp (1834–1894) was a French painter associated with the Orientalist tradition. He spent a significant part of his career in Egypt, where he produced numerous works – and unlike some of his colleagues his paintings were based on direct observation. He mostly painted scenes in Cairo, and these include recognizable architectural details that actually are from Cairo, not a made-up version of a random ‘Oriental’ city. When you see one of his paintings, you recognise the setting as Cairo immediately – at least, I did. [1]

Oriental Beauty with Sineklik is different in that it focuses on the individual sitter and her adornment. There are no details in the background like a building or a recognisable view that tell us where this lady is from, and the title is particularly unhelpful. So, in such portraits, it is the jewellery and dress that tell us where this lady is from!

Oriental beauty with sineklik: jewellery as key to identity

In this painting, a woman is seated against a dark red background, holding a sineklik (fly whisk) in her hand. Her gaze is directed away from the viewer, and she wears a loose white garment, a striped headwrap, and multiple items of jewellery. Although the title refers only to her as an ‘Oriental beauty,’ her adornment offers specific clues about her identity.

The eye-catcher is her gold necklace: composed of repoussé segments and disc pendants. The central pendant is larger, consisting of a crescent-shaped pendant with a disc below it, again framed with dangling discs. This necklace is of a type called kirdan. It is commonly associated with Ottoman jewellery, worn in Cairo during the 19th century. See a few examples of this type of adornment in the gallery above: click to enlarge the images.

Read more about the history of the Ottoman-style kirdan here

Her earrings match the necklace and echo designs from the 19th century, like for example depicted by Edward Lane [2]

Draped over her left wrist and hand is a strand of large yellow beads. They may be amber or glass, and they echo the look of a misbaha or tasbih, a strand of prayer beads. A similar strand of beads can be seen on the painting Oriental Woman Burning Incense, by Cesare dell’Acqua (1869, also in the gallery above: click to see its details).

Her headwrap, formed from a striped textile and loosely coiled around the head, aligns with styles worn by women in elite Cairene households.

So, that’s what we see: but what does all this mean?

Beyond the title: what ‘Oriental Beauty’ leaves unsaid

Despite the generic title, the woman in the painting is not without identity. Her adornments anchor her in a specific time and place; they firmly situate her in a late Ottoman Egyptian setting. The crescent-shaped necklace, with its repoussé craftsmanship and coin pendants, was typical of Egyptian adornment and is well represented in both photographic archives and surviving examples.

But this painting has its problems as well.

The anonymity of the sitter for example: she is not mentioned by name, and reduced to a very general title. In fact, we don’t even know if this is an actual portrait, or a model that served to create a generic view of that faraway region, ‘the Orient’.

This fits in with broader trends within Orientalist art: it produced very generalized images of “Eastern” subjects. In these works, jewellery and dress were frequently used as symbolic ‘shorthand’, you could say, flattening the layered meaning in jewellery and dress into a singular, romanticized visual language.

Take the strand of prayer beads, for example, dangling from her wrist. For starters, it misses its central bead, and is reduced to ornamentation: within its own cultural and religious context, this would not have been depicted as such.

Add to that the composition of the work: I don’t know if you noticed, and I apologise for drawing your eye to this, but everything seems to be centred around her cleavage. It’s literally the focal point of the painting, and the V-shaped lines of her garment, the handle of the fly whisk and even the perfect vertical line from her earrings through the central element of her necklace end up in her cleavage. I mean, jeez.

So, yes, the jewellery and dress allow us to add more context to this painting than just a random Oriental beauty – but the painting itself leaves viewers to interpret the scene based on partial information and oversimplifications.

Jewellery, dress & identity in Orientalist art

Pinel de Grandchamp’s Oriental Woman with Sineklik is not only an Orientalist portrait; it is also a visual puzzle. While the title centres on an accessory, it is the jewellery and dress that provide the key to interpretation. The kirdan necklace, Egyptian ornamentation, and Ottoman Cairo clothing place the sitter firmly in a cultural context that the label “Oriental beauty” glosses over.

So now that we know all this, what to do?

This painting reminds us how Orientalist art both reveals and conceals. It preserves details of dress and adornment that allow us to reconstruct cultural identity, while at the same time reducing women to symbols of an imagined East. By asking what jewellery tells us — and what the title leaves unsaid — we can approach these portraits with a more critical eye.

The thing is to be aware of that world beyond the artistic frame in which it is delivered to us. And this is where having insights in jewellery and dress can play an important role, too. Awareness of the importance and meaning attached to adornment helps resisting the anonymity imposed by the painting’s title and composition. There are more, and deeper stories to be told than just a woman holding a fly whisk and staring out of an invisible window.

That’s why I do what I do, in running this blog and creating courses to explore just that world, and I’m happy you’re here to join me on that journey!

Other blogs in the series on Jewellery & Art are here:

Decoding Habiba’s Jewellery

Portrait of a Syrian woman by Portaels

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References

[1] See for example this painting, that shows the Ghuriya complex on the main street of Cairo’s souq: it still looks like this today https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6154449

[2] Lane, E.W. 1842. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. The Definitive 1860 Edition. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo (2003).

The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how:

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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

Ancient jewellery: Iraq

Ancient jewellery: Iraq

by | Ancient jewellery, Cultures & People

Jewellery history of Mesopotamia

Ancient jewellery from Iraq

Published March 9, 2025

When we talk about the beginnings of jewellery history, few places are as important as Iraq — ancient Mesopotamia. From the royal tombs of Ur, with their breathtaking hoards of gold, to the tiny glass beads produced in early workshops, the region offers a vivid picture of how people used jewellery to express power, belief, and identity.

These finds are not just beautiful ornaments. They reveal the skills of Mesopotamian craftsmen, the reach of early trade networks, and the ways jewellery was tied to life, death, and status. Looking at the jewellery of ancient Iraq means looking at some of the oldest traditions of adornment in the world — traditions that influenced cultures far beyond the Tigris and Euphrates.

This blog is part of my series on Ancient Jewellery, exploring how adornment shaped identity across the Middle East and Mediterranean. You can also read about jewellery from ancient Syria, ancient jewellery from Lebanon, and more to come.

Iraq’s early jewellery history: Mesopotamian gold, beads & trade

Iraq is home to the two rivers that provided the perfect circumstances for early civilization: the Tigris and the Euphrates. The ancient name ‘Mesopotamia’ refers to these two rivers, as it literally means ‘between rivers’.

The rivers provided not only fertile ground but also formed trade corridors with southern Anatolia as well as with the Indus Valley to the east. It is not surprising that these circumstances gave rise to some of the earliest cities and city-states.

In the north of Iraq, near current-day Mosul, Tepe Gawra was a site that has been inhabited from 5,000 BCE onwards until 1,500 BCE. It’s from this place that the earliest use of gold in Southwest Asia has been preserved: wire and beads form telling tales of both technological achievements and trade.

Tepe Gawra grew into one of the earliest industrial cities, bringing wealth to an upper layer of its inhabitants, and that shows in the burials of the late 4th millennium. Gold rosettes and beads, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and turquoise from Sinai all testify to the trade hub that Tepe Gawra was.

 

The gold of Ur & elite burials: jewellery significance in royal tombs

In the south of Iraq, the city of Ur was a major urban site in ancient Sumer. Its cemetery of thousands of burials, dating to around 2,500 BCE, is world famous. Only a few of these contained abundant riches, and thus were called ‘Royal Tombs’ by their excavator, Leonard Woolley.

Although some of the deceased were indeed of royal status, the majority were elite members, courtiers and attendants, buried together with their ruler.

The burials contained lavish jewellery sets in gold, carnelian and lapis lazuli, and it has been proposed that the jewellery items with which each individual was interred, were somehow linked to their status and position.

Certain jewellery items are only used for men, where others are mainly worn by women. A further differentiation may be seen between royal and priestly elite members. Jewellery here does not only communicate wealth, but also complex organizational structures.

Jewellery of Queen Puabi: power, ritual & female adornment

Probably the most well-known burial in Ur is that of Queen Puabi. She was buried with copious amounts of jewellery in gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian.

As the roof of her tomb had collapsed in the past, it has been difficult to reconstruct the jumble of beads and other ornaments into the objects we are familiar with today. Her spectacular jewellery is also significant for more than just status and power. Recent research by Kim Benzel has shown that it may very well also have been charged with ritual or magic power.

In Puabi’s jewellery, references to fertility are abundant. Vegetation and floral motifs abound, and what is more, the use of gold seems to be focusing on the upper part of the body: as if in death, she was a radiant goddess in an aura of vegetation.

Assyrian jewellery & ornament in northern Mesopotamia

In the north of Iraq, the kingdom of Assyria flourished. Here, cities like Nineveh and Nimrud bloomed. In Nimrud, ancient Qalhu, in particular, four rich tombs have been excavated at the end of the 20th century by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities.

Two queens were found buried together, Queen Yaba’, the wife of Tiglath-pileser III, and Queen Ataliya, who was married to Sargon II. From the excavation it became clear that the queens were dressed in fabrics that were embellished with countless gold ornaments shaped like stars, rosettes, wheels, discs, and triangles, along with jewellery like diadems, bracelets, anklets, rings and earrings.

The level of workmanship achieved is superb: the woven diadem of Queen Yaba’ is technically very difficult to create. The use of eye agates is one of the ancient precursors of eye beads as they are still used today.

Glass beads and trade: ancient Mesopotamia’s bead production 

Glass beads excavated outside of Mesopotamia, sometimes at a considerable distance, tells us more about the wide reach of the trade network.

The most faraway example is a tomb from the 5th to 3rd century BCE in the city of Huludao in China, where glass eye beads have been excavated that were produced in Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze Age, around 1,100 BCE. Clearly these beads have traveled quite a distance in the centuries after their creation, but also in the time of the Bronze Age itself trade routes reached far.

Glass beads excavated in Europe were found to have been produced in Mesopotamia.

Medieval jewellery and continuing traditions in Iraq

During the Middle Ages, the area that is now Iraq continued to flourish as a trade hub. Baghdad was the capital of the Islamic world for a considerable time, and it is during the Middle Ages that we see forms and styles take shape that continue to be used in jewellery. The seal pendant shown here dates from ca 600 to 1200, and inscribed stones like these are still much sought after today.

These international connections are still visible in the traditional jewellery of Iraq. The silver jewellery of the tribes inhabiting the thick marshes in the south of Iraq has its own distinct style, while in the north of Iraq, the ethnic minority known as the Assyrians still have their own jewellery styles. In the cities, Ottoman jewellery styles have found their way into the spectrum of adornment, such as the characteristic belt buckles. All in all, Iraq is home to some of the most stunning and significant pieces of human adornment and history.

Ancient jewellery of Iraq: a testimony to human achievements

The story of ancient jewellery in Iraq spans millennia, from the gold rosettes of Ur to the bead production at Tepe Gawra, and from Assyrian diadems to medieval workshops in Baghdad. Across this long history, jewellery was never just decoration: it was a marker of rank, a tool of ritual, and a product of far-reaching trade.

For us today, these pieces provide a bridge to the people of ancient Mesopotamia. They remind us that even in the earliest civilisations, jewellery was already bound up with identity, belief, and cultural meaning. Whether a necklace buried with a queen or a simple bead traded across empires, each object tells us that adornment has always been central to human life.

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References

This is an updated, adapted and expanded version of a blog I wrote earlier for the Zay Initiative.

Alarashi, H. 2016. Butterfly Beads in the Neolithic Near East: Evolution, Technology and Socio-cultural Implications, in: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26:3, pp. 493-512

Benzel, K. 2013. Puabi’s adornment for the afterlife: materials and technology of jewelry at Ur in Mesopotamia. PhD-thesis, Columbia University

Gansell, A. R. 2007. Identity and Adornment in the Third-millennium BCE Mesopotamian ‘Royal Cemetery’ at Ur, in: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17:1, pp. 29-46

Gansell, A.R., S.L. James & S Dillon 2012. Women in ancient Mesopotamia, in: A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, pp. 11-24

Hussein, M.M. 2016. Nimrud. The Queens’ Tombs. Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, Baghdad/Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Acces this publication here

Maxwell-Hysop, K.R. 1960. The Ur Jewellery. A Re-Assessment in the Light of Some Recent Discoveries, in: Iraq Vol. 22, pp. 105-15

Jenkins, M. & M. Keene 1982. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Miller, N. F. 2000. Plant Forms in Jewellery from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in: Iraq Vol. 62, pp. 149-155

Peasnall, B. & M.S. Rothmann. One of Iraq’s Earliest Towns. Excavating Tepe Gawra in the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, in Expedition Vol. 45 no 3, pp. 34-39 Access this publication here

Varberg, J. et al. 2016. Mesopotamian glass from Late Bronze Age Egypt, Romania, Germany and Denmark, in: Journal of Archaeological Science 74, pp. 184-194

The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

What to do when gold gets too expensive?

What to do when gold gets too expensive?

by | General jewellery topics

Jewellery & Economy

What to do when gold gets too expensive?

Published on February 26, 2025

It’s 2025, the gold prices have been skyrocketing for some time now, and that seems to continue for the foreseeable future.

What happens when gold becomes too expensive for events such as weddings? This question isn’t new: across cultures, people have long found creative ways to adapt when the price of gold put it out of reach.

From renting jewellery for weddings, to turning to imitation pieces and replicas, to rediscovering silver jewellery, the traditions of adornment have always continued in one form or another. These practices reveal much about how jewellery functions: not just as wealth, but as heritage, identity, and cultural expression.

Renting jewellery as an alternative when gold prices rise

If it’s just for the day, you don’t actually have to own the jewellery. So, for both guests and the bride herself, it is possible to borrow someone else’s jewellery. That can be the collective jewellery of several family members, but also a set rented from a jeweller. [1]

Bear in mind that, while this has been an accepted custom for decades, wearing another person’s jewellery is limited to these individual occasions; jewellery has never been passed down from generation to generation. Each bride expects to be honoured with a new set of jewellery. Second-hand jewellery that has already been worn for an entire lifetime, is usually dismissed.

And finally, jewellery is sold to cover expenses throughout a woman’s life: it is constantly added to or sold off.

This practice, by the way, makes jewellery that is more than one generation old hard to come by; most jewellery was melted down and worked into new pieces over the course of the owner’s life.

Imitation jewellery & replicas: how cultures respond

If it’s not for the day, but for a considerable amount of time, that is when imitations come in. And these can actually be very, very good! That is because imitations as a phenomenon have been around for quite some time, too.

Should a woman have to sell her jewellery to cover expenses, that will have the neighbours talking for sure – unless they don’t see the difference. Both silver and gold jewellery can be replaced by cheaper substitutes.

Those replicas were so good that the difference between the originals and their cheaper counterparts could often only be discerned on close examination.

In Egypt, one particular company thrived on this demand for gold-plated replicas. The icon of their brand name ‘al-Gamal’, the camel, was stamped into the jewellery; at a distance this resembled the official gold hallmark and added to the illusion of authenticity [2].

Speaking of hallmarks, you could also imitate those to look like the real deal from a distance. Instead of the official marks, they would consist of a series of X’s for example, or, a beautiful variety that does not speak untruths: the word ‘metal’ stamped into the surface: just like a regular hallmark would mention silver or gold content.

Silver jewellery revival: heritage and value when gold fades

As a result of those skyrocketing gold prices, trend observers have seen a return to traditional silver jewellery instead of gold. And that may even include traditional heirloom jewellery: apart from its monetary value, authentic silver jewellery has been being revalued increasingly as cultural heritage in its own right for the past decades.

Born out of circumstances, it’s nonetheless a beautiful way of old jewellery gaining new meaning in today’s world!

See more here about changing values of materials used in jewellery: did you know aluminium used to be a precious metal?

Cultural resilience: jewellery, heritage and solutions beyond gold

When the price of gold rises, the world of jewellery does not stop — it transforms. Imitation jewellery, silver ornaments, and even the practice of borrowing or renting jewellery all show how people preserve the meaning of adornment in the face of economic limits.

So, here we see again how jewellery has never been only about precious materials. It also carries heritage, memory, and symbolism. In this sense, gold’s expense only highlights a timeless truth: jewellery is valuable not just for what it is made of, but for the role it plays in tradition, identity, and human connection.

Find out more about jewellery as a financial asset in the course!

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References for the use of jewellery as financial asset

[1] See Lindisfarne-Tapper , N. & B. Ingham (eds), 2013. Languages of Dress in the Middle East. Routledge, London/New York, p. 62

[2] See Fahmy, A.  2007. Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt. The traditional art and craft. American University in Cairo Press, Cairo

 

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

Jewellery and Ramadan

Jewellery and Ramadan

by | General jewellery topics

Jewellery & religion

Jewellery and Ramadan

Published on February 25, 2025

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is a period of deep spiritual reflection, fasting, and community engagement for Muslims worldwide. The end of the month is celebrated, too, and during both the holy month itself and the Eid-celebration after, jewellery is important. This blog tells you more about jewellery and Ramadan!

Can you wear jewellery during Ramadan?

The short answer: yes! There are no specific rules in place that forbid the wearing of jewellery during Ramadan. Given that Ramadan is a month of reflection, modesty and devotion to God, it is however encouraged to be not too ostentatious.

So, in the end, wearing jewellery during Ramadan is a personal choice, influenced by cultural traditions, religious interpretation, and personal intent. If it aligns with modesty and does not distract from worship, it is widely accepted.

Jewellery as Ramadan gift

Jewellery makes a wonderful Ramadan gift. Gifts can be exchanged when breaking fast together: not every day, but when families visit each other on the occasion of a more formal iftar (the first meal of the day, just after dusk) or suhoor (the last meal of the day, just before dawn), small gifts add to familial bonds and to the celebratory atmosphere. Gifts are also extended to members of the community. [1]

That is a tradition that large brands have picked up upon, too. In the Gulf and the Arab Peninsula for example, the period leading up to and during Ramadan sees jewellery brands launching special collections that resonate with the spiritual and cultural themes of the month.

These collections often feature designs incorporating traditional motifs, like the crescent or eye, or calligraphy of one of the Names of God: try an Internet search on ‘Ramadan jewellery’ and see what beautiful collections are offered each year!

Jewellery & sales during Ramadan

The month of Ramadan often leads to a surge in economic activity, particularly in the jewellery sector. The last ten days of Ramadan are typically the busiest: this is when Eid al-Fitr is around the corner and the preparations for the celebrations start.

The importance of Eid al-Fitr is hard to overestimate: even though it is not one of the major holidays, many stores and offices are closed for several days, and it comes with the same stress-levels as Christmas: think of thorough house-cleaning, family visits and lots of cooking and eating together!

On Eid al-Fitr, people wear new clothes, and it is customary to give gifts. These often include jewellery as well.

Where does this custom of jewellery gifts during Ramadan come from…?

This tradition itself is rooted in the economic significance jewellery has had for millennia. Giving small pieces of jewellery is a way of adding to a personal savings’ account, you could say: husbands, brothers and uncles present smaller pieces of jewellery to the women of their families on celebratory occasions, and Ramadan is one of those occasions.

The emphasis on jewellery as you’ll find it today, with special Ramadan collections and jewellery heavily marketed as suitable Ramadan or Eid gift, is however more of a marketing principle of the last decades: before that, there was no such thing!

There is another aspect of jewellery in relation to Ramadan, and that is whether or not you should pay zakat over it: that’s what the next blog is about!

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References for Jewellery & Ramadan

[1] Hilma Granqvist mentions the giving of gifts to a male school teacher in Artas, Palestine, in the 1920s. H. Granqvist, Birth and Childhood among the Arabs, Soderstroms, p. 148.

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Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

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

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

by | Jewellery & Art

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.

Bethlehem shatweh with coral beads, gold and silver coins.
Group of Palestinian women in Bethlehem, wearing silver jewellery glinting in the sun.
Two solid silver chin-chains called iznaq from Palestine.

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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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.