Enfilade

On this day (10 January) in 1706, Luisa Roldán died, as both a celebrated and impoverished artist. From the Getty Store:

Catherine Hall-van den Elsen, Luisa Roldán (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2021), 144 pages, ISBN 978-1606067321, $40.

This initial book in the groundbreaking new series Illuminating Women Artists is the first English-language monograph on the extraordinary Spanish Baroque sculptor Luisa Roldán.

Luisa Roldán (1652–1706), also known as La Roldana, was an accomplished Spanish Baroque artist, much admired during her lifetime for her exquisitely crafted and painted wood and terracotta sculptures. Roldán trained under her father and worked in Seville, Cádiz, and Madrid. She even served as sculptor to the royal chambers of two kings of Spain. Yet despite her great artistry and achievements, she has been largely forgotten by modern art history. Written for art lovers of all backgrounds, this beautifully illustrated book offers an important perspective that has been missing—a deeper understanding of the opportunities, and the challenges, facing a woman artist in Roldán’s time. With attention to the historical and social dynamics of her milieu, this volume places Roldán’s work in context alongside that of other artists of the period, including Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán, and provides much-needed insight into what life was like for this trailblazing artist of seventeenth-century Spain.

Catherine Hall-van den Elsen studied Spanish art at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She completed her MA and PhD on the life and work of Luisa Roldán.

C O N T E N T S

Series Foreword
Preface
Introduction

1  Women in Early Modern Spain
2  Sculpture in Early Modern Seville
3  Andalucía: Building a Career
4  Madrid: Challenge and Opportunity
5  Luisa Roldán through the Lenses of History

Chronology
Notes
List of Extant Works in Public and Church Collections
A Selection of Further Reading
Image Credits
Index