Who was Luisa Roldán?

The great Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652-1706) was active in Andalucía and Madrid in the second half of the seventeenth century. In recent years her extraordinary sculptures in wood and terracotta have attracted much attention; a number have been acquired by major museums in the USA. Although some publications and exhibitions of the current century have featured her work, questions of attribution and her own identity as an artist can be complex. Her training and stylistic development in Seville and Cádiz, as well as her later activity at the court in Madrid, reveal a web of interconnections.  As a woman sculptor, she was clearly exceptional. But she remains an enigmatic figure. Her statues and groups arguably affected the evolution of sculpture in baroque Spain, yet many details of her life are still unknown. My lecture will discuss her work, as well as the challenges of studying such an artist, many of whose sculptures are still in enclosed convents in Spain. 

Part of the Art History Seminar Series, convened by Mary Roberts and Nick Croggon, and presented by the Power Institute and the discipline of art history at the University of Sydney.