Biography

Italian painter, part of a family of artists and architects of German origin, active in Italy, son of Ignaz Stern. Ludovico Stern was a prolific portrait and history painter in the circle of Anton Raphael Mengs.

Ludovico Stern initially trained with his father, but later also studied in the Academy of Parma and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1741, he joined the Congregazione dei Virtuosi del Pantheon, and served as regent in 1755-56. In 1756, he became an academic of merit at the Accademia di San Luca.

He painted several religious canvases, among them: a series for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Guidonia Montecelio; a San Francesco Caracciolo (1752) for San Lorenzo in Lucina; a Saints Peter and Paul (1757) for the church of Santi Michele e Magno; and a Vision of St 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.