Human touch Prado show celebrates true colours of polychrome sculpture

In a darkened corner of the Prado, not far from an outsized crucifixion and a sculpture of a dead, recumbent Christ with eyes of glass, teeth of ivory and fingernails of horn, is another depiction of Jesus that is remarkable in its poignancy, its humanity and its history.

- Sam Jones

The tiny, painted terracotta scene, titled Los primeros pasos de Jesús (Jesus's First Steps), is domestic rather than divine and shows a chubby, beaming infant ambling towards his equally beaming father. Its creator was the Spanish baroque artist Luisa Roldán who, despite becoming the first female sculptor to the royal court in 1692, is only now making her debut in the Madrid museum.

Roldán is being exhibited alongside artists such as Alonso Berruguete and Gregorio Fernández as part of a new show that aims to rescue polychrome sculpture – the expert application of coloured paint to statues – from centuries of haughty indifference.

Roldán, popularly known as La Roldana, was the daughter of another famous Spanish baroque sculptor, Pedro Roldán. Her talents and ability to capture mood and emotions in her creations caught the eye of the royal court and she served Carlos II and Philip V.