Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1858 - 1865

This portrait of an unknown woman was captured by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, rendered with light and shadow on a carte-de-visite. Note the pearl pendant adorning her neck. This motif, seemingly simple, carries echoes through art history. We see pearls in Renaissance portraits, often associated with purity, status, or even tears—symbols of mourning, immortalized in art, reappearing across centuries. Consider its transformation: In ancient Rome, pearls were emblems of wealth, gracing statues of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Over time, their meaning shifted, intertwined with Christian iconography, representing the Virgin Mary's purity. Now, this symbol is embedded in the collective unconscious. This continuous reappearance affects us in ways we may not entirely grasp, speaking to us on a subconscious level. The emotional weight, the echo of those tears, still resonates. Symbols resurface, transformed and imbued with new life, becoming something else entirely.