Virgin of Solitude

Luisa Roldán called La Roldana, Spanish, 1652-1706
On View

in

European, Level 2, South Wing

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About the Artwork

Within an elaborate framework of architecture and clouds, the Virgin Mary kneels alone. Tiny sculpted tears roll down her cheek as she mourns the death of her son, Jesus. With its skillful use of terracotta, intimate scale, and solemn emotional tenor, this artwork exemplifies the qualities that Spanish baroque sculptor Luisa Roldán was praised for by her contemporaries. The only relief known by Roldán, who is best known for her work in the round, it represents a widely venerated but now lost sculpture of the Virgin of Solitude by Gaspar Becerra (1520 – 1570). The statue stood on the altar in the monastery church of Our Lady of Victory in Madrid and functioned as a focal image of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Solitude and of Anguish, a devotional brotherhood that enjoyed royal patronage. Through innovative framing and once-vibrant polychromy applied by her brother-in-law and collaborator, Tomás de los Arcos, Roldán reconceived this famous statue as a heavenly vision for private devotion. The artist proudly announced her elevated role by signing the relief with her title: escultora de cámara (royal sculptor).

Virgin of Solitude

1705

Luisa Roldán

Spanish

Spanish

Unknown

Terracotta, paint, glass, wood

Unframed: 15 × 10 1/4 inches (38.1 × 26 cm) Framed: 23 1/4 × 18 1/2 × 5 1/4 inches (59.1 × 47 × 13.3 cm)

Sculpture

European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Museum Purchase, Funds from the Joseph M. DeGrimme Memorial Fund and Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

2018.33

This work is in the public domain.

Markings

Signed and dated: D.A LVISA ROLDAN ESCVLTORA DE CAMARA DE SVS MAD.DES 1705

Provenance

Conde de Adanero (Madrid)

(Colnaghi, London, England)

(Fred Huston, London, England)

2018-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Lenaghan, Patrick. “Luisa Roldán’s Virgin of Solitude (Virgen de la Soledad): Art and Religion in Madrid,” Bulletin of the DIA 94, no. 1 (2020): pp. 54-73 (fig. 1-3).

Hall-van den Elsen, Catherine. Luisa Roldán. London, 2021, pp. 123; 126 (fig. 88).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Luisa Roldán, Virgin of Solitude, 1705, terracotta, paint, glass, wood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Funds from the Joseph M. DeGrimme Memorial Fund and Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2018.33.

Virgin of Solitude
Virgin of Solitude