Registration is required. Please see the Eventbrite page for more details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/discovering-women-sculptors-tickets-135926597111?aff=erelexpmlt
The lectures are free to members of the PSSA. A nominal charge of £3.50 is made for non-members for each lecture.
Abstract: The daughter of a well-known Sevillian sculptor, Luisa Roldán trained in her father’s circle, sculpting both over-life sized wooden sculptures for churches and intimate terracotta sculptures for domestic, devotional spaces. After her marriage in 1671 Roldán established an identity independent of her father and subsequently attracted commissions from churches and religious brotherhoods. Leaving southern Spain with her young family in 1688, she travelled to Madrid where she soon established her reputation as an able interpreter of Madrid’s religious and political environment. In 1692 she was named Sculptor to the Royal Chamber of Carlos II retaining the title upon his death and the arrival of Felipe V, and working until her death in 1706.
Biography: Cathy Hall-van den Elsen studied Spanish art at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, completing her PhD (1992) on the life and work of Luisa Roldán. After a period working outside art history Cathy returned to scholarship in 2005, contributing the introductory chapter to the exhibition catalogue Roldana published by the Consejeria de Cultura in Seville in 2007. In 2018 Cathy published a monograph in Spanish:Fuerza e Intimismo: Luisa Roldán, escultora (1652-1706), (Madrid, CSIC). In August 2020 her annotated bibliography on Luisa Roldán was published by Oxford Bibliographies Online, and in 2021 Lund Humphries will publish her monograph in English: Luisa Roldán. Cathy’s next project is a study of creative women from Spain and Portugal in early modern period.
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