Luisa Roldán was born in Seville, the daughter of sculptor Pedro Roldán and his wife Teresa de Ortega. She was taught by her father, alongside her siblings, how to draw, utilize clay to shape figures and finally sculpt or carve in wood. She became an apprentice in her father’s workshop. Also working within the workshop was Luis Antonio de los Arcos, who Roldán married when she was 19, against the wishes of her family.
From 1686 to 1688 Roldán worked in Cadiz establishing her own workshop, together with her husband and her brother-in-law, Tomás de los Arcos, to create religious polychromed wooden sculptures. Roldán was the principal sculptor, while her husband and her brother-in-law worked as the ‘encarnado’, a specialist in painting flesh tones.
Although Roldán became the Escultor de Cámara, or Court Sculptor, to the Habsburg King Charles II, she struggled financially. Roldán gave birth to seven children, only two of whom survived to adulthood. Of the five who died, the cause of death in two cases was malnutrition. Roldán eventually died in poverty in Madrid in 1706, even though on the day of her death, she was given the title of “Academician Merit” from the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.
The Arts of Golden Age Spain and the Hispanic World 