Page 166 - The mystery of faith

LUISA ROLDÁN, CALLED ‘LA ROLDANA’

(Seville 1652 – 1706 Madrid)

16. The Education of the Virgin

Wood, polychromed
76 x 63 x 43 cm (approx. 28 ¾ x 24 ¾ x 17 in.)
PROVENANCE: Andrés González Moro, Seville, 1960; Juan Salas, Madrid

Since the Middle Ages, scenes of Mary’s childhood education had been one of the favoured themes
in narrative cycles illustrating the Life of the Virgin, particularly sculptural representations.
Mary’s Presentation in the Temple and, of course, the Annunciation remained popular subjects
well into the Baroque period, but scenes of the aged Saint Anne teaching her small daughter to
read enjoyed particular appeal, partly due to the intrinsic appeal of intellectual subjects in a time of
mass illiteracy. Reading was specifically a pastime of the nobility, and the Virgin Mary, as Queen of
Heaven was nothing if not noble. More to the point, the subject’s popularity was connected with the
symbolism underpinning the Inmaculista movement1 that emerged in Seville during the early
seventeenth century and advocated the concept of Mary’s innate purity. The infant Virgin was
supposedly so exceedingly pious she had insisted that before entering the Temple her mother should
teach her the scriptures. Later, at her Annunciation, Mary’s diligent study prepared her to actually
comprehend the Archangel Gabriel’s words.

This charming, yet monumental group by Luisa Roldán follows the Sevillian Baroque iconography for
the subject, with Mary, depicted as a small girl, standing by the seated Saint Anne, who holds a codex
on her lap. Clearly transcribed on the open pages are the words of Gabriel’s announcement: ‘Spiritus
Sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi [...] quod nascetur ex te sanc[tum]’.2

From the second half of the seventeenth century artists often incorporated eye contact between the
Virgin and Anne, to enhance the subject in both a sentimental and a pedantic sense. To achieve a similar
effect, La Roldana, instead, employed a very compact composition arranged on a common base,
following the example of the version her father, Pedro Roldán, made in 1670, which is now in the
parish church of Santa Cruz in Seville (Fig. 1).3 The elder Roldán had made this piece to be included in
the retablo bequeathed by Dona Ana Luna Ladrón de Guevara, whose will invested her executor,
Captain Sebastian de Arria, to hire Bernardo Simón de Pineda as architect, Juan de Valdés Leal for the
polychromy, and Pedro Roldán to sculpt images of the Saint Anne and the Virgin surrounded by ten
putti and seraphim.4 The altarpiece was to be installed in the chapel dedicated to Saint Anne in the
convent church of the Clerigos Menores fathers in Seville (now the parish church of Santa Cruz). Since
the altarpiece was completed in June 1671, a time when Luisa was still employed in her father’s studio,
it is possible that she assisted her father in his version of The Education of the Virgin.5 The present
version by La Roldana is roughly one quarter smaller than Roldán’s sculpture, but shares the same

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