Who was Luisa Roldán?: Holly Trusted

Powerful Ideas: New Research in Art History at the University of Sydney is convened by Mary Roberts and presented by the discipline of Art History at the University of Sydney, with support from the Power Institute.

Thursday 26 March 2026, 03:00PM - 04:30PM. Schaeffer Library Seminar Room 210, Mills Building (A26) Free. This research seminar series is also accessible via Zoom.

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Luisa Roldán, The Virgin and Child with S. Diego of Alcalá. Painted terracotta on gilt wood base. Madrid; c. 1690-1695. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

UK-based curator and scholar Holly Trusted introduces us to the extraordinary but enigmatic 18th century Spanish sculptor 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.  

People

Holly Trusted

Dr Holly Trusted FSA (formerly known as Marjorie Trusted) was a longstanding Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum until 2019, and has published and lectured widely on sculpture. Currently a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, she was also Senior Research Fellow at Durham University from 2022 to 2023. She co-founded and co-chairs the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, which promotes education about sculpture (see pssauk.org). Holly is currently working on a study of the Spanish baroque sculptor Luisa Roldán.