Luisa Roldán

'An invaluable introduction to the figure of Luisa Roldán . . . Drawing on her own extensive archival research and decades of firsthand study of the sculpture, Catherine Hall-van den Elsen offers a sensitive analysis of the works while also setting them effectively in their historical context . . . More than the story of one remarkable sculptor, this book also offers insights into the challenges women confronted in seventeenth-century Spain and the artistic production of the period.' – Patrick Lenaghan, Curator, Hispanic Society Museum and Library 'Catherine Hall has produced a book which is a pleasure to read, superbly illustrated, incorporating fascinating details about the society in which Luisa worked, including the challenges she faced as a woman artist. At the same time this monograph is rooted in serious scholarship, discussing the process of some of the commissions, as well as the materials and techniques lying behind the creation of these extraordinary works of art. This is both a highly readable and delightful book.' – Marjorie Trusted, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Victoria and Albert Museum 'Luisa Roldán’s story is full of paradoxes. Despite her success she died in penury. She was remembered as ‘an immortal’ by the early 18th-century art historian Antonio Palomino but was not the subject of a solo exhibition until 2007. Hall-van den Elsen’s monograph makes an important contribution to the existing bibliography, only some of which is included at the back of the book, and to raising the profile of Roldán’s enchanting terracottas, which deserve a catalogue all of their own.' – Apollo magazine