'The famous Roldana’: new perspectives on the Spanish woman sculptor Luisa
In this joint seminar with History of Art (University of Glasgow), Carlos Maura Alarcón (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) discusses new research on this Early Modern woman sculptor, including a new attribution to a sculpture in the private collection of Sir William Stirling Maxwell. The seminar will be introduced by Hilary Macartney (Stirling Maxwell Centre & Stirling Maxwell Project, University of Glasgow), and will be followed by additional comments on Technical Art History by Mark Richter (History of Art, University of Glasgow). This is a hybrid event.
College of Arts School of Modern Languages and Cultures Stirling Maxwell Centre
Date: Thursday 29 October 2026
Time: 17:00 - 18:00
Venue: 8 University Gardens, room 101
Category: Public lectures,
Unlike many other women artists of her time, the Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652–1706) was never forgotten in Spain. The acquisition of The Virgin and Child by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 2022 also reflects the growing international interest in her work over recent decades, particularly among major art institutions, whose engagement has helped shed new light on her artistic production. The ongoing research presented in this paper offers new perspectives on Roldán's work through the current investigation of a sculpture, here attributed to her, in the collection of descendants of Sir William Stirling Maxwell.
Speakers
Carlos Maura Alarcón
(Principal speaker)
Carlos Maura Alarcón studied at the University of Seville and is currently a PhD student at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). His research focuses on colonial Latin American art and Spanish polychrome sculpture. He recently completed an internship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where he began the research presented in this talk.
Dr Mark Richter
(Additional comments)
Dr Mark Richter is Lecturer in Technical Art History at the University of Glasgow and staff member at the Kelvin Centre for Conservation & Cultural Heritage Research. He studied at the Courtauld Institute and University of Applied Sciences (CICS), Cologne. He has experience of the conservation-restoration of polychrome wooden sculpture and his research includes polychroming techniques, artists’ materials and studio practice.
Dr Hilary Macartney
(Respondent)
Dr Hilary Macartney is Honorary Fellow of the Stirling Maxwell Centre, University of Glasgow. She studied at the University of Glasgow and the Courtauld Institute and began her career in Glasgow Museums. Her research has focused principally on reception of Spanish art, particularly the scholarship and collecting of Spanish art by Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-1878).