Luisa Roldán (La Roldana)
Spanish Baroque sculptor (1652-1706), trained in her father Pedro Roldán's Seville workshop, who rose to escultora de cámara — sculptor to the royal chamber — under Charles II in 1692: a woman holding the crown's sculpture office in a profession otherwise closed to women. Her polychrome Saint Ginés stands in the Getty Museum.
Why this wins its question: A woman holding the Spanish crown's sculpture office in the 1690s is exactly the under-told fact this instance exists for — and the claims stop where the Getty's account stops: no "first woman sculptor" superlative, because the source does not make one.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Luisa Roldán (1652-1706) trained in the Seville workshop of her father, the sculptor Pedro Roldán, and built an independent career in polychrome wood and terracotta sculpture.
In 1692, under Charles II, she was appointed escultora de cámara — sculptor to the royal chamber — after presenting a Saint Michael at court, and she signed with the title for the rest of her career.
Her Saint Ginés (c. 1692, polychromed with Tomás de los Arcos), held by the Getty Museum, is the work its exhibition singles out for the anatomical force of her carving.