In this Research and Academic Program lecture, Marjorie (Holly) Trusted (University of Glasgow, Scotland / Center for Spain in America Fellow) introduces the great Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652–1706), who worked in Andalucía and Madrid in the second half of the seventeenth century. In recent years, Roldán’s extraordinary sculptures in wood and terracotta have attracted much attention; a number have been acquired by major museums in the United States. 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. She remains nevertheless 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. As a woman sculptor, she was clearly exceptional. This lecture discusses her work, as well as the challenges of studying such an artist, many of whose works are still in enclosed convents in Spain.

Holly Trusted, FSA (formerly known as Marjorie Trusted), was the longstanding senior curator of sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London until 2019. She has published and lectured widely on sculpture. Currently a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, she was previously Senior Research Fellow at Durham University in England (2022–23). Trusted is collaborating with specialist Catherine Hall-van den Elsen on a scholarly study of the Spanish baroque sculptor Luisa Roldán. At the Clark, Trusted will continue her work on Roldán.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.

Image: Luisa Roldán, The Virgin and Child with St Diego of Alcalá (detail), c. 1690–95, painted terracotta, Victoria and Albert Museum, London