Background
Stern was born in Rome to a Bavarian painter, Ignazio Stern, (Mariahilf 1680 – Roma 1748), who had moved to Italy around the year 1700.
Stern was born in Rome to a Bavarian painter, Ignazio Stern, (Mariahilf 1680 – Roma 1748), who had moved to Italy around the year 1700.
He is known for both large sacred and history paintings, as well as still lives, and portraits. Ignazio had received work and training in the studio of Carlo Cignani in Rome. Stern initially trained with his father, but als studied later in the Academy of Parma and Street Luke in Rome.
In 1741, he was inducted into the Congregazione dei Virtuosi del Pantheon, and served as regent from 1755 to 1756.
In the latter year, he became an academic of merit at the Accademia di San Luca. He painted a series of religious canvases for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Guidonia Montecelio.
He painted a San Francesco Caracciolo (1752) for San Lorenzo in Lucina, and a Saints Peter and Paul (1757) for the church of Santi Michele e Magno, and a Vision of Street Lawrence of Brindisi (1756), now in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia. He also painted a room in the Palazzo Borghese in Rome, now titled the Stanza della Quattro Parti del Mondo (Room of the Four Parts of the World), with a cycle of paintings depicting Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and Juno and Iris.
Stern was also in great demand for his portraits.
Giovanni"s son, Raffaele Stern (1774-1820) was a prominent neoclassical architect in Rome. Two of Raffele"s nephews were also architects.